Scattered Dust
by WolfieStar
Summary: Ren's addiction to deadly drugs comes back to haunt him and makes him question his values, and his mistakes bring down his entire team with him, destroying whatever values between them. One by one, they all fall, all the blame placed on the young man's scrawny shoulders, forcing him to bare it all to save them.
1. Chapter 1

Icy steam collided with fire hot wisps, circling one another like ribbons on a present. Black darkness framed the contributing exhales, combining together into a massive haze overcasting the room. Shielding and protecting it's children from the dangers of reality, coddling them like the tiny, fragile babies that they were. Nothing could harm there here, could it be true?

He stared up at the tendrils of smoke floating above the ceiling, concealing the dimmed lights. Everything felt numb, heavy and weak, weighing like lead as his eyes following a few clouds of steam, taking in their icy grip when he inhaled it when it strayed too far from the group. A small cough left his lips, and he stared at the red smoke leaving his lips, slowly floating up to join the massive space above his head.

The top rim of the wooden chair pressed against his back deeply, digging into his shoulder blades without mercy. Slowly, he tried to adjust himself, but failed to do so, catching himself when he lost his balance and nearly fell on the floor off the side of the open chair. Something sounded in his skull, above the dull ringing pounding in his ears, and he felt almost weightless, staggering forward as he thrust his arms limply on the table, scattering the powdered Dust around them. As if he were floating far above them.

"Hey, watch yourself! I paid good money to get this stuff, yo!" a booming voice penetrated his hazy bubble, and he blinked a bit dumbly at the opposing man, who began to nudge the little particles of the purple Dust towards him with his credit card, making it into a neat little line. As the cheering began to commence, he ripped out a bill and rolled it up into a tight little straw, then snorted the line down hard. Snort, choke. Snort, choke. Snort, snort.

He stared blindly at the man, who made a few soft noises as he tried to hold down the sharp stones, and then stood up and threw his arms in the air, grinning a bit too widely at the others, who began to pat his back and yell at him. As if he had just won an award. A small scoff left his lips, leaning back as he held his own straw in two trembling digits, rubbing at his irritated eyes.

"No, you probably stole it." He snickered softly, reaching over for a few packets of the purple dust, licking his dry lips. Everything felt so much better, coaxed by the other men and by the attractive aroma of burning Dust. All of the participants smelled like a burning fireplace, a snow covered front lawn, all of the elements beautifully blended together in the air he breathed in. The violet and cyan dust tasted wonderful down his throat, and he felt as if he were floating after consuming them.

"Shut up, Lie!" The strange smelling man rudely ruined his passionate dream, and he scowled a bit, slowly laying out his own line to inhale. The pink eyed young man didn't take his eyes off of him, using his student ID card to line up the dust in the perfect arrangement, before preparing his straw, narrowing his bloodshot eyes at him ever so slightly.

Briefly, he tore his eyes away to glance down at the sparkling Dust staring up at him. Waiting, watching. Without a second thought, he blocked out the noise, jamming the straw at the head of the line, stuffing it into his nostril at the same time. Plugging his other nostril up, he shut his eyes, inhaling deeply as he moved along the dust, coughing and snorting softly at the first gust of the drug went down his system. It was always a shock to him, but the rest went down like velvet, the burning sensation in his body making him tremble with delight. From the high powered energy reacting with his flesh inside of his body, he gasped out softly, the purple smoke wafting from his mouth. It smelled beautifully to him, reeking of sweet lavender and iron, and tasting like candied blood on his tongue.

The man next to him sharply clapped his back, causing him to gasp loudly and begin to cough, bending over as he spat out a few the crystals. Snarls left his throat, yet slowly dissipated to deep breathing as the rest of it went down into his lungs, staring at the blurry figure sitting beside him. Slowly, the stinging pain between his shoulder blades disappeared as he began to rub in slow, soothing circles, as if apologizing for his treatment.

"You should get out of here, bro." he mumbled softly, coughing slightly when some of the purple smoke from Ren's own lungs entered his, wiping his drooling mouth carefully with his sleeve. Ren coughed a few times, staring at the man with bleary magenta irises, the purple smoke leaving his lips and floating up towards the ceiling with the other colors, forming a menacing gray above them. It was time to go. "That test is coming, ya know? Tomorrow. Don't ya have a combat test tomorrow?"

Something seemed to click within the head of the student drunk on drugs and on a high, and feebly he gave a nod, looking briefly like a lost child. Ren was soaring, high above the rest of them, above the building, above that damn cloud of smoke circling above them for more prey. When his brother nudged him again, a small scowl left his lips.

Despite only just smoking the sweet, sweet dust, the high was gone. The previous bliss and serenity disappeared, and he suddenly felt like he was suffocating, drowning. That damn drug was supposed to make this go away, yet why did he feel so claustrophobic again. He began to breathe in a bit more quickly, and a few of the packets were tossed towards him.

"Take those with you."

"I can't!" gasping a few times in surprise, he scrambled and fumbled, feebly trying to toss them back to the hooded man sitting beside him. They slid past his fingers, yet were thrust back towards him, and with a small snort, he grasped them again, the sight of them initiating a frown on his lips. "Shin…"

"Oh be quiet. Those teachers are too stupid." When the smoke from the lit dust shard reached their nostrils, both simultaneously rolled their eyes back into their heads and moaned in pleasure, leaning closer to it to take in the sweet smell of the burning ice dust. Slowly, his frazzled nerves were calm again, and Ren shut his eyes slowly, breathing in the scent. Despite it not being the pure, real stuff shoved down his throat, the aroma of it had a soothing, temporary effect.

Yet, the effect wore off, and he shook his head, staring up at the taller Hunter with a scowl. "Yes, maybe, but I'm not stupid enough either to smoke this shit on the property. There's students everywhere. And those teachers are probably prowling around somewhere. A kid got caught last month smoking, Shin. I can't handle that."

"I don't know where the hell you got your head problems, but cut that shit out and grow a pair. Stop whining and crying when you feel sad or nervous over stupid shit." Shin scoffed, holding the small, slightly crumpled paper holding the shard closer to his nose, inhaling them deeply and nearly sucking up a few small splinters. A few specks of frost appeared on his nose hairs, which made him snicker a bit in pleasure, the hairs under his nose tickling a bit. "Just go on and do it or something. If you can sneak past curfew to smoke a few with your old brother here, then you're fine." He turned, looking towards him with his own bloodshot eyes. "Skedaddle on home, back with your cute little girlfriend."

"Shut up, Shin. Just leave Nora out of this." He scoffed again, scowling a bit, but didn't say anything about the mental stresses he suffered from, instead snorting at him. Standing up proved to be somewhat of a challenge, almost falling over at first from the headrush he felt. His hands went to his head, and he waited for a few seconds, breathing in deeply as he recalibrated his senses, before opening them again to stare at Shin. "You're all fucked up in the head too. And leave Nora out of this."

Shin snickered softly, smacking Ren's rear end when the other turned to leave the club, and the other glared at him sharply, snarling a bit. A hand went flying out, smashing towards his cheek in a sharp slug, sending him flying back towards his seat. He smashed against the floor, the chair coming down with him, and Ren scoffed a bit at his brother, lying sprawled across the floor.

"I told you to shut up, asshole." Ren grumbled softly, turning on his heel, and nudging past the other residents at the club, heading up the stairs at the end of the darkly lit room and trudging up with heavy steps. The sounds of the other participants in their activities gave loud whoots and scoffs, yet he gave no heed to them. When he opened the door, the smoke escaped along with him, ready to cause more mayhem to it's victims. Yet, he was tugged backwards again, and he stared over his shoulder at the offending hand resting. "What the hell?"

Shin smirked a bit, wiping the cut on his cheekbone with his thumb carefully as he stared at his brother's eyes, his body glowing red for a brief moment before fading again. A powerful aura thundered from his soul, easily healing the nasty bruise and bloodied face he possessed, causing him to emit a snicker of pleasure, Ren's punch meaningless on his near flawless frame. The darkness of the night concealed features on his procelin skin and scraggy cheeks, his own magenta irises glittering with mischief back at the stoic face of a younger ward, moonlight streaming through the windows illuminating his eyes.

"Don't leave when I'm talking to you." Shin mumbled, easily tugging the shorter man down the first few steps back down into the thick smoke. The small transfer from the clean air to the dusty one shocked him, causing him to blink a few times again. His eyes were burning again, and he began to rub at them, yet they were yanked down when Shin scoffed, adjusting his black hoodie with one hand. "Listen; get ready for tomorrow night, alright? I'm all ready to get to that company."

"Alright, Alright." Ren waved him off, snorting a bit. "I'll see what time I finish that Combat Test." He began, but winced slightly at Shin's expression. "…I will be there, I mean."

"That's what I thought, asshole." The expression Shin wore was enough to make even Ren's skin crawl. "We're running low, I need to refuel." Reaching deep into his pockets, he stuffed more of the little bags into his younger brother's hands. "And you do too. Those combat tests are the shit, man. You need to be ready. I ain't gonna be a brother to a drop out."

"You almost were a dropout, asshole." Ren smirked a bit, giving him a slight shove, then slowly turned back towards the light of day, past the hell hole in the hideout. "Just let me get out of here. I'm good for the night. I'll be back tomorrow. I promise."

Shin stared at him, a frown tugging at his lips, though he eventually let go of the younger man, scowling slightly. "You better. Or we're gonna have a problem here." He snorted, disappearing within the steam of the dust and the darkness of the drugs. Ren took this opportunity to leave the basement, exiting the abandoned building.

Weiss smirked a bit, adjusting her skirt carefully as she stepped onto the combat stage, her heels clicking daintily as she climbed the stairs. She took her stance, flipping her hair a bit as she watched Ren climb onto the opposing steps, passing the pedestal where Glynda stood, their eyes trained onto the young man, who wavered a bit where he stood. Her eyes narrowed a bit, catching something on his appearance, a dull nagging feeling in the back of her mind, staring at his ruffled overcoat, and slightly crooked ponytail.

The young heiress tilted her head a bit, eyes narrowing as she watched her opponent summon StormFlower from his baggy sleeves, slowly staggering into his battle stance, wavering, weak. She clicked her tongue, tilting her chin forward, staring at the wrinkles under his eyes with a critical gaze, the ghastly look on his face screaming at her desperately. Yet strangely, she felt nothing, scoffing slightly as she got into her own posture.

Briefly she saw Ren stare at her across the stage, his eyes unfocused and hazy, and he rubbed at them with a defensive hand, but had grown startled when Glynda spoke to him. Weiss' ears perked, unable to hear their soft mumbles, seeing him nod and her roll her eyes, and she sighed, shaking her head as she looked over Myrtenaster. Carefully, she scrolled through the dial, aiming her rapier towards him.

The announcement of the combat test had been a startling revelation. After the rise in crime in the cities and the increase in difficulty of the opposing Grimm, it had been said by the Headmaster that the strength of the students of Beacon would be honed and put to the test, a necessity among the times they were in. To protect themselves, the citizens of Vale from the new threats arising, and to aid their teammates, it was vital for them to strengthen themselves.

Teams were pit against each other in these simple combat tests, against other students with their fighting styles far different from their own. Weiss and Ren were the last on each of each other's teams, prepared to be put to the test against one another. At the announcement of the matches, Ren had teasingly said that he hoped Weiss wouldn't go easy on him, to which she shot back at him quickly.

But yet now, Ren appeared almost weak and sickly, frail and pitiful before Weiss, a shell of a man, a skeleton of a fighter. He slowly heaved himself forward, his hands curling around the grips of his weapons, wary of the curved blades, as if aware of his own curious condition. Bloodshot eyes wavered towards Weiss, and narrowed carefully, raising his arms up defensively as Glynda stepped back and started the timed battle.

Weiss didn't hesitate to surge forward, when Ren still wasn't obviously ready, the young man staring off at the screen with a distracted stare. With a light jump on her feet, the young hieress easily slashed him right under his ribs. When he stumbled back, she sidestepped, turning the dial on her rapier as she shot magic towards him, the ice scattering around them, effectively creating a cloud of steam as well. A hiss left her lips, not expecting the recoil, and gave a sharp gasp when Ren slid to the side, past the pillars of ice, shooting a few rounds towards her. She ducked past the bullets, hiding behind the ice created, her teeth gnashing together.

Ren suddenly rounded around where she hid past the shoot of ice, using a small hill of ice to use as a platform and propelled himself up with his blades bared, preparing to slash at her. Weiss narrowed her eyes, darting out of his line of attack and jabbing at him with the rapier. He attempted to turn his body in midair and kick the weapon out of her grip, but he awkwardly lost his line of balance and landed on the ground, huffing a bit with annoyance. Quickly he gathered himself, rolling out of the way of her attempting to stab him with the blade, effectively locking her to the ground. She gave a minor whine, trying to yank it out of the stage as Ren jumped to his feet, heading towards her.

Weiss glanced up at him, and then hit the floor as the first shots rang out. From the force of her fall and yank at the same time, the weapon dislodged from the hard surface of the ground, and she feebly tried to protect herself from the blast of his blades colliding with hers. They clashed and locked together with the sound of shrieking metal, their sight focusing on one another. She snarled, narrowing her eyes, pinned under from his weight, locking eyes with Ren. Yet, she paused slowly, her expression softening for only a brief moment when she realized it..

Ren reeked of that crap. That damn crap in her weapon, the source of the ice. That damn crap in his own weapons, firing his rounds. That damn crap in all of their weapons, the source of energy in Vytal. That damn crap her own father inhaled as he would beat her like an old rug.

A sudden anger exploded within her, and she gave a loud yell, a battle cry, as she threw Ren off of her with a frightening strength. Appearing visibly shocked, he landed on his back, and didn't have a chance for a counter before she was on top of him, an angry Ursa ripping apart her prey. He cried out when she lifted her rapier, absolutely terrified when he found StormFlowers had been knocked out of his hands quite easily, sliding all the way on the other side of the stage and disappearing within the unforgiving darkness. The expression on his face was of fear and disappointment, the sight of Weiss towering over him, and he, defenseless, was torture, and of stupidity over not understanding her behavior and reactions.

Quickly, he tried to squirm away from her, rolling over onto his belly and trying to get out of her grip, frantically clawing towards the handles of his double pistols. Yet before he could get even remotely out from under her, his collar was grasped, and suddenly he found himself smooshed against the floor quite a bit roughly. And then lifted up, and smashed against the ground, quite a few times more than he would have liked.

Weiss felt herself be taken over by this violent anger, crashing him repeatedly without a single thought, consumed by the sadness and depression of her past and her nightmares. The fact that he smelled of dust smoke, had exhibited all of the symptoms that he had, and now had tried to fight her, high as a cloud, made her so angry. What a complete dumbass he was…it infuriated her.

Weiss grabbed Myrtenaster with a powerful grip, raising it up and threatening to smash it against his head, but was suddenly yanked back by two offending hands. She gave a loud cry, thrashing a bit as she was thrown down, the teacher Glynda glaring down sharply at her as Ren slowly crawled away from them, a hand covering his bloodied face and slightly crooked nose. Sharply she turned her head away as he summoned his aura to heal him, the faint pink glow surrounding him as he leaned on his hands and knees, panting a bit with labored breathing.

"That's enough. Both of you." Glynda adjusted her glasses carefully, staring at Weiss with an unreadable expression as she glanced over at the other students watching the fight. She lifted her head, staring over at the audience. "Here is a lesson to you all. Do not let emotions and rage take over in place of proper skill. It's uses can only be so useful in a battle." She shook her head a bit, glancing down at Ren, who had managed to find his weapons, collapsing them within his sleeves as he wavered, his arms sprawling out a bit awkwardly.

Weiss huffed a bit, easily rising to her feet and attempting to dust herself off, a slight scowl on her as she did not glance over at the others. They were watching her, her team, and she couldn't even bear the sight of their shock and disappointment over the destruction of her wall. Swallowing heavily, she straightened out her skirt again, holding her rapier carefully as she headed towards the stairs, trotting down them and disappearing within the group of people. Away from her team.

Ren didn't even bother to stare up at the screens, knowing that the results had been grim and very embarrassing towards him. His history of fights had been a bit underwhelming, from fighting the Death Stalker, and now against Weiss. If only someone had witnessed his attack and defense on King Taijitu, but then again, right after it's defeat…

"Ren! Nice job! You almost had that one!" Nora called from her spot besides Pyrrha, bouncing a bit and grinning, a little rocket ready to launch right up to him. Instead, he merely scoffed and tore his eyes away from his partner, feeling multiple eyes on him now. Pyrrha's attempts at neutering Nora's cries were failed, and he turned away, slowly wobbling towards the stairs once he had been dismissed from the battle arena. He hadn't noticed the concerning gaze on Glynda's face as she stared at him as he was taken in by his team, who covered him from any of the negative emotions that could permeate his shell.

"If you say anything, Shin, I swear to God."

"Nah, nah! It's fucking hilarious!" Shin gave a shrieking laughter, fumbling for the keys that had been swiped from the clueless old owner from his bag as they stood at the back door of the Dust shop. The dim light from the shattered moon illuminated their dark figures in the alley, a few rats skittering away from them as Ren stepped over murky puddles and towards the engulfing shadows where Shin rested against the building. Moving meticulously, they hid within the void, preparing themselves as they removed themselves from the spotlight, concealing their features with whatever they had brought for the job.

The tall buildings towered over them, encircling them. Ren briefly glanced up at them, but tucked his head back down when he began to grow dizzy. He felt claustrophobic for a few moments, looking around the tight alleyway, accidentally bumping into a few trashcans. A slight hiss left his lips as the lid slid off and crashed to the floor, causing a cat to screech loudly and sprint away from them.

Shin snickered softly, tugging his hat off as he lifted off a plain, white mask from the nearby party store, slipping it onto his face and securing it safely. He glanced towards his brother, eyes glowing through the plastic holes of the crummy mask. "You got your butt kicked by a girl in a skirt. A rich little princess. Nice going, Ren. Bringing pride to the Lie dynasty."

"What the hell? There is no dynasty. Shut up, this is why people make racist comments to us all the time. We're just two stupid orphans." Ren scoffed slightly, a hand resting protectively on his forehead, rubbing at his eyes with the ball of his hand tiredly. He stared at his brother through his unconcealed eye, sighing as he tucked his long ponytail down the collar and back of his shirt, squirming when the long hairs pressed against his shoulder blades. The school uniform felt a little baggy on his slender form, and he scowled a bit, briefly realizing his loss of weight, but it dissipated as he flicked his collar up with a quick motion, twirling a scarf around his head enough times to conceal him, only revealing his pink eyes that stared over at Shin. The older man snickered at his expression.

"Look at you. Just go steal a mask or something from the party store across the street. You look stupid as fuck." Shin rolled his eyes, tossing his hood over his head as he stood up, unlocking the door carefully. It slipped open with a loud screeching sound, Ren narrowing his eyes a bit at the sound. "Whatever. We're almost in, buddy. You ready?"

"I've done this enough times, Shin." He shook his head. "Why are we even disguising ourselves anyway? This is stupid." Ren slowly stood up, straightening out his back as he sighed, going in behind Shin, the two slowly creeping in. Their boots clicked on the tiles, the night sky filtering in through the front windows of the shop. "The owner left like hours ago. It's an easy catch."

"Do you want to nearly get caught by police again? I have enough on my record. I ain't taking another fall for you buddy. Better to be safe than sorry." Shin scoffed a bit, smirking underneath the plastic mask as he stepped towards the front displays, grinning at the crystals of dust staring up at him, glittering when they caught the faint light. "Go on! Grab the dust!"

Ren snorted a bit, beginning to unravel the scarf that was awkwardly around his head, instead looping it around his neck lightly as he stepped forward, looking around. The tubes of the powdered dust lined the walls, the large crystals resting gently on velvet cushions in the glass cases. He felt slightly on edge; after the recent thefts of dust, something didn't feel right within Ren's stomach. Something bubbled within in, and he groaned a bit, feeling his skull pounding from the inside, the young huntsman struggling to stagger forward slowly.

He reached into his messenger bag, pulling out a few large thermoses, which easily clicked into place and was filled to the brim with the dust. Ren stared at them blankly, watching the meter fill up, and he sighed, tossing them back in his bag when it was finished, going down the line. "How long will it take you to make this into a drug, Shin? I don't want to snort pure dust again when I'm having an attack."

"Probably a few hours." Shin shrugged a bit, wrapping each of the crystals carefully in a soft fabric, watching as their glow began to dull from the cover. He placed each one of them in his own bag, careful to not make them cling against each other and potentially cause a dangerous chain reaction. Slowly, he stacked the case that was once full of crystals in his bag, clicking his tongue in pleasure. "I'm done with my part Ren. What about you?" he glanced over his shoulder at his brother, smirking a bit when he saw him tossing a thermos in the satchel. "Good, good. Once you're done—"

Ren stood up straight, staring out through the large windows, not listening to what his brother had to say. Slowly, his body tilted towards where Shin was, taking a step towards where they had come from. A hiss left his lips, staring over at his brother with wide, startled eyes. "Shin!"

Shin tilted his head forward, scratching the side of his scruffy face on the open part of the mask, turning his head towards where Ren was now looking back out the window. His own eyes widened, their features illuminated by the alternating red and blue lights. The pair of cop cars approached them, skittering to a stop right by the main entrance, startling awake the sleepy town square.

"Ren! You jackass! What did you do?!"

"Shin what the hell?!"

They turned back towards the front windows, watching with horror as the car doors opened to reveal the portly, and slightly clueless officials. Ren's breathing began to quicken, looking around frantically for something, something! Why were the cops here?! What—

His eyes caught onto the latch of the case that Shin had opened without a care, and snarled at the realization. The opening of the latch had activated the alarm, which was now blinking a dim red, providing no warning at all to the thieves. His breath caught in his throat, and he frantically swiveled around, time seeming to slow as he tried to look for an escape route, something. He seized up again, staring right at the security camera by the main entrance, focusing right on his startled face.

"Shin! Shin!" Ren cried out feebly, trying to locate his brother. A tightening in his chest occurred when he heard a smashing sound of the magazine rack in the back falling over, Shin disappearing down the hallway towards the back again. Coldness overtook his body, racking him with fear and agony over the situation. Shortly he turned again, the cops locking eyes with him. Everything seemed to stop for a few moments, the group separated by a mere wall of glass, silently watching, waiting, and wondering.

The mere tiny moment was shattered almost as instantly as it began, and Ren found himself running, sprint out of the building and down the dark alley. The coldness of the air made him numb, splashing water on his ankles and calves seeping into his socks and down into his feet, rain pouring down on him. It trapped him, freezing him to the core and suffocating him, grasping onto his heart and riding up his spinal cord.

A small cry left his lips, absolutely terrified as he pumped his legs, skittering past a few trash cans and ducking through alleyways. His brother was gone, he was alone again. He couldn't handle it, he didn't want to handle it. How had he always ended up this way? Trapped, barren and icy within the claws of reality. He didn't want this anymore.

The yells and cries of the impatient officers took away whatever sanity he had left, Ren frantically climbing up a fire escape of a nearby apartment building. Limbs scrambling, hands clawing for a grip, he grasped onto each one of the rungs, nearly falling to his death a few times, the predators lurking beneath him. Once on the roof, he flopped onto his belly only briefly, before getting to his feet and sprinting forward again, closing the distance between one end and the other end with a few long strides, before dipping down the other fire escape and sliding down.

The landing was rough, and he winced a bit as he crunched his tailbone from landing on his butt not so gracefully in the tainted water swirling down the drain beneath him. Slowly, he staggered to his feet, smashing against the brick wall a few times as he let out another soft sob, struggling to move forward and continue to run. No breathes were able to get into his lungs, a full panic attack brewing, which managed to be makeshift fuel for his engine as he slowly managed to run again, powering up into a full sprint back to Beacon.

At some point, he had managed to lose the police. What point, he wasn't sure. But he did it. Stepping back onto beacon academy, he panted a bit, his face a bright pink, his hair ruffled, drenched as a drowned rat. Frozen to the core, he didn't even have the strength to tremble away the ice, taking one heavy step after another towards the dorms where he resided. Not so easily he jumped the fence, smashing on his face a bit ungracefully, crawling to his feet to continue his trek.

Once he made it back, he forced the door open, and was met with a startling surprise. He blinked a few times, then tilted his head forward, locking eyes with seven other pairs of eyes. Slowly, he turned his head towards the large television, his startled face plastered on the screen as it brought up his image from the robbery he had just come back from.

The satchel dropped from his side, the containers of dust slowly rolling out as Ren fell to his knees before the startled eyes of his teammates, friend, and Nora.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Nora had been startled awake when the door had flew open, Ruby staggering in in her jammies and motioning for the rest of her team to follow her into Team JNPR's room. The serenity of the calm sleep between the three had been shattered, the TV turned on full volume and every single damn light on. No one was too happy, not even the girls that had been dragged into the bedroom opposing theirs across the hallway.

Nora yawned loudly, even herself a little bit grumpy as she tried to smoothen down her hair somewhat, adjusting her night shirt that had somehow rode up to expose her breasts during her short slumber (she quickly rectified herself at Pyrrha's request, seeing poor Jaune's cries of embarrassment and slight fear). She wiped some drool off of her cheek, blinking as Ruby settled herself down right next to her, the remote in her hand.

"Hey! What are you doing Ruby?" Nora's voice rang out as Yang fumbled to turn on the television when Ruby kept yanking the little remote in different directions, failing miserably to turn on the large flat screen TV. Weiss eventually shoved the taller woman out of the way and jabbed on the power button, accidentally bumping into the doors of the entertainment center holding the set protectively.

"Shh!" Ruby scolded Nora with a slight frown, the ginger blinking a bit dumbly as she looked around the room, the TV booting up slowly, taking in where everyone was. Blake was sitting on the floor, her back resting against the bed where Pyrrha was looking forward in a slight daze, her legs hanging over the edge and kicking a bit, nearly smacking into the Faunus a few times. Yang was reclining against the wall closest to where the two were, staring over at them with a small snicker.

Swiveling her head, she found Jaune slowly sitting up in bed, snuggling the covers around him as he watched the screen flicker on. Weiss sat neatly on the bed next to Ruby, opposite of Nora, and it was then that it hit the peppy young lady that Ren was nowhere in the room.

"…where's…Ren?" Nora whispered softly, the frown appearing slowly on her face. Ruby elbowed her in her tummy, and she pouted a bit, pressing a hand against her flesh gently as the television successfully flickered on, the younger huntress flicking through the channels until she found the news.

"…ports of a robbery at the small Dust shop in Vale, 'From Dust Till Dawn'. The two thieves were seen getting away just moments ago." The anchorman said, leaning back in the chair as the attention of the seven hunters in training looked towards him, like zoo animals waiting for their meal, waiting for their information. "One of the robbers was seen wearing a Beacon Academy uniform as he was caught on camera."

Nora felt numb for a few moments, a sinking feeling deep in her gut as she slowly turned, looking towards the bed next to her. Empty, clean, perfectly made. But no Ren. She glanced towards where Pyrrha and Jaune were, and she bit her lip when she realized that their gazes were right at where she was staring at only moments ago.

Yang scowled a bit, clearing her throat only briefly. "Wait, guys. It gets worse." She whispered softly, struggling to swallow a lump in her throat at the thought of one of her friends in a deep cavern with no way out. Glancing towards Blake, the young woman frowned a bit, squirming a bit uncomfortably, her ears flicking a bit in displeasure. The recent topic of discussion between Team RWBY still resonated within them, and briefly they both wondered if Team JNPR was having the same exact situation as them, only with much more different motivations.

Nora turned towards the television again with a slight scowl now, watching as the anchorman announced that they recently obtained the security camera footage. It took a few minutes for it to load and set up, and once it began to play, her heart dropped into her stomach like a stone.

The scarf wrapped around the robber's head was abandoned, tossed around his throat as he strode along with the masked figure in the old little dust shop, walking through as if it was their own territory. Nora bit her lip, giving out a small little whine when she saw the bright pink streak of hair visible on the offender's feathery black hair, through the grainy security camera feed. Her eyes were trained onto the figure stuffing the thermos' of dust within his own backpack, the one that she had given him for Christmas last year.

The room began deadly silent, everyone staring at the footage, watching as the lights permeated through the video camera, and the masked man darting away through the way that he had come. Hopelessly leaving his partner in crime. Frantically the younger man looked around for where he had gone, only to pause, then sprint in that direction when the cops burst through the front door and began to almost comically chase the much more able bodied student.

It sharply ended there, going back to the anchorman, who placed his hand on the table with a small huff. The silence and shock in the room was evident as the topic of discussion between the crew working at the news station shifted towards the rise in crime in the area, and the fact that it was obviously a student committing this acts of unlawful activities, began to blame Beacon academy. Yet, it fell on deaf ears, the seven students merely staring blankly at something in the room to avoid the elephant.

How long it took for someone to snap out of it was a mystery, but slowly, Nora managed to choke out, "…that was…Ren." She whined softly, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She began to sniffle, wiping her eyes on her arms, snorting as she got snot all over herself. It pained her, her chest tightening in grief as she stared down at her lap, thighs pressed tightly together. Tears fell down in rivers down her cheeks, and she gave a soft wail, faintly feeling Ruby's touch on her shoulders.

What had caused Ren to throw his life away like that? Was that the reason that he had been brutally lying to her for so long? Despite what many people thought, she wasn't just some bubbly idiot. Her talkative demeanor was a mere illusion, a cover as she was able to easily analyze the situation and the people involved. It was one of the reasons why she worked well with Ren. She was loud, able to read the situation. He was quiet, easily able to take action and work through a problem without running in head first.

Her partner…what was going on with her partner? Why was he doing this? And what exactly was he doing? Nora cried loudly again, allowing herself to be pulled into Ruby's embrace, sobbing onto her shoulder. The grief that her best friend, her partner, her lover was a criminal was just far too much for her to bear. Whimpering and mewling into her chest, she sobbed for Ren.

She had known Ren nearly all her life, growing up with him in the orphanage. It had been terribly cruel and rough some days, especially with the caretakers. A soft sniffle was heard at the memory. Yet Ren had been with her the entire time, protecting her and always supporting her, even if she hadn't heard a word from him until nearly a year after they met. The quiet and stoic wall, keeping her steady as her antics went wild.

What was Ren up to? Why was he…wasn't he totally against the idea of organized crime and illegal activities? Yet…she stared over at the TV, her vision muddled by the sticky and heavy tears sopping down her face. That damn recording was being played, over and over and over and over…constantly focusing on Ren's face and identity. Quickly she buried her face back against Ruby, feeling her rub and stroke her back, trying to soothe her.

"…why would he…what was he doing?" Nora whispered softly, shaking against Ruby. "…why would he need so much dust…is he…in trouble?" She felt like she was drowning, everything crumbling down around her, sucking her into the vortex and trapping her there. Her hero, her role model, her best friend, was a low level criminal? Chest tightening, heart clenching, she gasped loudly as a sob ripped her into shreds. Her world was crashing down.

Nora's head lifted when she heard Weiss snicker from where she sat next to Ruby, all attention turning to her. Weiss stared over at Nora with slightly narrowed eyes, arms crossed defensively across her bosom. "He's one of those bottom feeding addicts. Addicted to snorting dust, like those hoodlums."

"Here we go again…" Yang sighed, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Weiss. "We just went through something like this, Weiss. Are you trying to start another fight?"

"All I'm saying is the truth." She shot back with a snarl. "When I fought him, I could tell. He acted just like one of those losers, who's thrown their life away for a drug. I'm just stating what's become obvious. Why, if I were Professor Ozpin, I would cast him out on the street in a heartbeat—"

"Shut up!" Nora suddenly hissed, pulling herself away from Ruby with a small scowl, narrowing her eyes at the young Heiress as she jumped to her feet. "Don't you dare say that about Ren! You don't know anything about him!"

"I know more about him than you, that's for sure." Weiss shrugged a bit. "If you can't tell that he's obviously a druggie, then I don't know what you're missing." She jerked her head towards the television. "Look at the evidence Nora. Camera footage, his picture plastered all over the news. Besides, where is he right now? I don't see him in his room." A small smirk appeared on her porcelain face. "All of the evidence is pointing him to be a criminal to support his drug habits Nora."

Nora gnashed her teeth together, her hands curling into fists. Trembling with anger, she gave an angry little yell, stamping her foot in a very childlike manner. "Shut up! Just—shut up! Don't talk about Ren that way! You—you—you don't—"

"I don't what?" Weiss challenged, Ruby quietly patting her side to get her attention.

"Weiss…" Ruby mumbled softly, watching her with a slight scowl forming. "Please just…be quiet. This…really isn't any of your business is it?" she winced at the daggers thrown her way just from Weiss' expression, cowering back away from her. "I mean—this is more Team JNPR territory, am I right? We should just…let them handle it?"

Weiss opened her mouth to say something else, but paused, seeing Pyrrha stand from her bed, approaching where they stood. The tall woman sighed, running her hands through her tousled red hair, trying to make herself appear somewhat organized. "Weiss…please. Just stop right now. I know you uh…mean well…but…he's not even here yet. Maybe he just…he just…uh…"

"Maybe he has bathroom problems!" Jaune yelled from his side of the room, grinning a bit nervously as he fumbled with the blankets in his hands. "I mean…uh…he isn't exactly a good eater…or…eats much, for that matter…ehehe…"

Pyrrha rolled her eyes a bit, sighing softly as she turned back to the three other girls. "Besides, if he was a criminal, I'm sure we'd have more substantial evidence, right?"

"What other evidence do you want?" Weiss snapped, slamming her hand down on the mattress. Nora stared down at Weiss, demanding her to say something else nasty about the one so close to her. "I mean, what—"

A silence overtook the rowdy bunch of teenagers, all of them snapping their heads towards the door when it was slowly opened up. Nora felt her heart crumble, seeing Ren slowly stagger into the room, looking very much like a drowned rat hit by a car, his uniform torn and stained in a few places, soaked to the bone with rain water, and shaking like a delicate leaf. A loud cry left her lips when he fell to the ground with a small thud, the thermos' of dust slowly rolling out of his bag.

"…Ren."

It had all happened in such a blur, Nora was surprised when she found it was already the next morning. More than twelve hours had gone by already, and here she was, sitting up in bed and staring across the room, where Ren was rocking back and forth on the mattress, muttering to himself.

Within moments of Ren's arrival back at Beacon, the security had managed to locate him and nab him, dragging his near limp body to the office of Ozpin at his request. The headmaster had desired to speak with him, instead of just shoving him off to the police and not having a care. It had startled the security guards, retired hunters themselves, questioning his reasoning for wanting to speak to the criminal.

Ozpin merely chuckled softly at them, waving them away.

The headmaster smiled warmly at Ren, who merely narrowed his eyes at the elder. That hammer was going to go down soon, he knew it. Hand in his student ID, his weapons, his uniform, everything that mattered to him. Leave the academy immediately, and never come back—

"Would you like some coffee?"

Ren blinked, evidently startled by the question. "…I…what?"

"You heard me." Ozpin was already heading towards the coffee maker set up neatly in the corner of his office, humming softly to himself as he picked out a suitable mug for his guest. "I've seen you drink coffee. All of my students seem to. Now then…how do you take yours?"

Ren seemed stupefied, blinking a few times at his headmaster, swallowing heavily as he stared down at his hands, scraped and bleeding from the recent chase. Shutting his eyes briefly, his head pounding loudly, reverberating in his skull, he managed to choke out, "…just pour the entire thing of milk in there. I like it with a lot of milk. And one sugar."

Ozpin went to it, mumbling something under his breath how it wasn't real coffee. Yet he continued, humming quietly to himself as he poured the milk in, allowing it to boil along with the coffee and the hot water. Once it finished, he gave him the coffee, sprinkling in a packet of sugar, and sitting down with his own black coffee.

As he worked, Ren looked around the room. He had never been invited into his office, well, no times that he particularly remembered. The room was surprisingly bare, nothing hanging on the wall, just the boring diplomas and proof of education. Nothing of color was truly evident in the decorating style, most of it just a boring gray. Not even any picures were displayed on the desk near the laptop computer and the large Pad Scroll residing next to it. It felt…strangely empty and lonesome here, and Ren scowled a bit. He hadn't expected that from Ozpin, more or less believing that he wasn't a workaholic in the slightest.

Slowly, the student took the warm mug, holding it carefully in his palm, before raising it to his lips, blowing against the rising steam softly. He crumpled in on himself, curling up and sitting in a slightly huddled position on the chair, trembling slightly. The sopping clothing clung to him, the towel providing little to no assistance with warding away the cold that had seeped into his skin. Carefully he took a few sips of the coffee, flinching sharply when the heat scalded his chapped lips, coughing a bit as he sat up a bit straighter.

The silence remained calm and comfortably quiet, the two merely just sipping their hot coffee, Ren struggling to wrap his head around the entire thing. The young student felt numb, tired, and weak, unable to do much except just sit there, shaking away the little droplets of water clutching onto him as he blew at the warm liquid, watching the coffee ripple slightly from the contact of his breath.

The surprise of himself sitting here, with Ozpin, and not rotting in the cold, cruel iron bars of the prison didn't even occur in his mind anymore. He could only wonder, what would happen to him? What would happen between himself and his…his team? His friends? Of course, he would likely be ejected from school life anyways, never to see them again. Like they would even want to. Pyrrha and Jaune…would be busy with each other. Team RWBY would forget about him.

What about Nora? Nora… Ren's eyes squeezed shut as he thought about her, a few tears welling up to fall down his cheeks. Nora…he'd lied to her so much, had hid from her for so long, she probably didn't even want anything to do with him anymore. He wouldn't want to do anything with himself anyways, he mused. What would Nora do…? He couldn't even come up with an idea, sipping more of the burning coffee to distract himself from the pain.

Ozpin cleared his throat, causing Ren to glance up at him tiredly. The professor stirred his coffee with his spoon, clicking his tongue, before leaning back and looking at his student with that slight smile on his face again. Ren swallowed.

"Professor Ozpin…" Ren began slowly, shutting his eyes after a few moments, before reopening them again with a pained expression. Ozpin stared at him, raising an eyebrow when the young man began the conversation. "I…I just…I'll hand in everything I need to right away, sir, and then I'll leave right away and I won't bother you andthenI'lljustgoandnevercomebackand—"

"Slow down, slow down." A slight chuckle left Ozpin's lips, smiling a bit over at him, placing his spoon slowly on the plate carefully, trying to not splatter any of the liquid over his paperwork. "I'm not going to expel you from school."

"I…what?"

Ozpin slowly leaned forward, resting sharp elbows against the tabletop of his desk, touching his chin carefully with his long fingers. "I won't expel you from this school environment, Mr. Lie."

Ren stared at him, stupefied, still reeling from the announcement. "…you…you won't…make me leave Beacon Academy? Sir—"

A hand was raised, signaling the silence he desired, which was quickly received as Ren shut up, curling up again on the seat and watching him expectantly. He crossed his legs quietly as he shivered, tugging the towel closer to himself, feebly trying to dry off his clothes. There was no allowance of him to go to his room yet and no change of clothes either. For now, at least.

"As you're aware, a student recently was put on serious suspension for smoking Dust on school property?" when Ren gave a brief nod, he continued. "But, that student had been doing basically what you've done, and more. Criminal record, drug dealing, smoking and snorting the drug…" he shook his head, sighing as he sipped at his coffee. "It's become an epidemic in Vale. You're aware of that, aren't you?"

Ren dipped his head.

"Drug deals, organized crime, and addiction to Dust in the population is rising exponentially, Mr. Lie." Ozpin sighed, shaking his head. "Why is that? What do you think about that?"

Ren stared at him, unmoving, barely blinking. It was almost as if he was zoning out, but he eventually broke through the wall of emotions plaguing his chest, and shrugged. "I…I don't know, Sir."

"You don't know." His eyes felt like spears, plunging deep into the student's heart and rattling him thoroughly when the headmaster shrugged innocently. "Hm. Well…neither do I. So I guess that's a problem, isn't it? Ah, how about this, let's get down to the point. Why do you smoke dust?"

Ren appeared startled, staring up at him with wide, magenta irises, spluttering for a few seconds out of surprise, nearly spilling the hot coffee all over himself. Slowly, he opened his mouth, but closed it again after a few moments, scowling. Eyebrows furrowing, hands curling up against the mug, he found, he didn't have an answer.

"I…I don't…" Ren mumbled softly, frowning slightly as he looked up at him, appearing slightly pained. "…I don't know." He shook his head, sighing as he squeezed his eyes shut, that damn migraine coming back, squeezing the sides of his head until his brain was turned to mush, groaning as he rubbed at his temples. "A-ahh…"

"Go on, sip some of that coffee." Ozpin ordered, smiling a bit when the young man did as he was told, sipping at it with a trembling hand, spilling a few drops onto his jacket. "There now, you got it. The hot drink will help you calm down.

"How about this question, then," he tilted his head at him slightly, smiling still, "do you remember when you started taking the drug?"

"Uh…that I think I might, yeah." Ren muttered, his lips smacking against the warm surface of the porcelain cup. Humming briefly, he sighed. "I know that my brother started so long ago I can't remember…it took over his life uh…around eight years ago—right when he graduated Beacon. He's twelve years older than me. I can't…exactly remember why I started, or why he did. I think…I think…it was because of money. He needed to make a quick buck…but how I got sucked into it? I have no clue, sorry."

Ozpin paused at that, blinking as he put his coffee down, staring at him quite curiously now, not caring that his question wasn't really truly answered. "Wait, go back a few sentences. Your brother, who graduated Beacon…who's a hunter? What is his name?"

Ren felt chills going down his back, every single lesson that he had learned screaming at him to shut his damn mouth before he got himself into even more trouble. He swallowed, shaking his head rapidly. How dare he release information about his brother? That was what had been drilled into his head by his brother ever since they started working together on dust heists. Loyalty between siblings reigned above all.

"I…I don't know!"

"You don't know?"

"N-No! I don't!"

"You don't know your own brother's name!"

"No, sir! I don't!"

"…ah."

Ozpin snorted slightly, leaning back as he crossed his arms. "The Police had wanted me to get the name of her partner so they could go and start the search for him. I suppose he has a lengthy record anyways. It won't take long to go search him up in either my computer, or in the Police records. Now, I recommend, in order to avoid any other nasty circumstances, to just come on out and tell me the name of him, Mr. Lie. It would work better in your favor."

Ren scowled, narrowing his eyes at him, feeling challenged and insecure slightly, squirming uncomfortably in his seat, as if sitting on pins and needles. "…I…I can't." he whispered softly, his shoulders rolling forward as his head fell, and he squeezed his eyes shut, tears filling up his lids and spilling over into his coffee. "I can't do that to him. He's…he's my brother. He's all I have left. I can't abandon him like that."

That silence had consumed the room again, instead this time leaving a heavy wake within it. Ren's soft mewls and whimpers were shaken by his quaking shoulders and body, falling in within himself. He was exhausted and weak, worn out and run down from years of inner turmoil and disgust that had taken him over, spitting out what he believed to be a monster. Ozpin leaned back, stirring at his drink carefully as he glanced up at Ren.

"You aren't alone, Ren."

A soft sob left Ren's lips, and he blinked, staring up at the headmaster, tears falling in rivulets down his sunken cheeks. The professor smiled slightly at him, placing the spoon back down again as he stood up, approaching the younger hunter, standing by his side. "You have so many people to help you, Ren. You have your partner, your team, your teachers…" a hand touched the shivering man's shoulder, rubbing gently, "…and myself."

Ren choked softly, looking up at the teacher, looking absolutely defeated and downtrodden, still expecting the ax to be dropped before him, purging himself from the school environment. Everything had to be after him, hadn't it? His heart was beating far too fast, and he cried softly, still looking up at him in mild disbelief.

"I promise you, Ren. I'll help you out. You can always come to me for help." Ozpin sighed softly, removing his glasses and rubbing feebly at his own eyes, as if they had started to get damp as well. "That's what I'm here for. I've…made a few mistakes myself. But at least now I can help out others who've done the same thing as myself. I want to try, in any way I can, to lessen the load for you. You are still going to have to pay the price for your actions, such as return the dust you've stolen and commit to community service, but I want to help you with your addiction."

Ren swallowed heavily, staring up at him. "…you…you want to help me?"

Ozpin chuckled softly. "Of course I do. What kind of headmaster would I be if I didn't?" he brushed some stray leaves off of his sweater the young man was wearing. "I'll always be here. My door is open whenever you need an extra crutch." His expression hardened slightly, removing his hand. "I will still need to give you an appropriate punishment by tomorrow night, Mr. Lie. And your addiction will also be handled accordingly as well. Do you understand?"

Ren shut his eyes briefly, struggling to keep up with everything. Everything hurt, he felt so heavy and tired, and he was already thinking about his next Dust binge. Which was probably never, if the teacher had anything to say about it, he realized with a small grunt. Slowly, he opened his eyes, then smirked.

"What if I don't want to quit?"

"Then you'll be expunged from Beacon without any more chances to return." Ozpin said blankly, narrowing his eyes. "That's why I asked you why you snort Dust, and when you started. To pinpoint the cause, and shut it down. You still seem hesitant to tell me, or else you truly just don't know. And you still haven't told me your brother's name."

"I'm not going to any time soon, sir."

"I figured as much." The taller man sighed, stepping away from the student and returning to his seat, sipping at his coffee once again. "Starting tomorrow morning, I'll give you one week. I'm going to keep an eye on you, cut off your dust supply for the time being as well. No dust to power your guns, and you will not be handling any of the school supply either. If you do not tell me the name of your brother, and you do not swear to partake in the twelve-step program for addiction, you will be expelled. I want you to tell me the name, to give you a chance to give me some sort of confession."

Ren sighed a bit, rubbing at his forehead tiredly. He felt his anxiety well up within him, his breathing quicken. He felt trapped, the walls closing in on him, he couldn't breathe, he was going to see his lunch soon—

"You don't have to make your decision now." Ozpin reminded him gently. "I'm giving you one week. That's it. No extensions or other requests. Do you understand? Good. Now go back to your room and rest for now. I've had the police confiscate the stolen dust already."

"They looked through my stuff?!" Ren gave a yell, then flinched at the sound of his own voice. What was the point of fighting it any longer? He sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry." He shook his head again, slowly heaving himself to his feet, dropping the coffee on the rug as he clutched onto the corner of the desk, wincing when he heard the mug shatter. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—"

"It's fine, it's fine." Ozpin scowled slightly at the coffee stained against the murky gray carpet, then sighed. "It's fine. Just go back to your room, Mr. Lie."

Ren dipped his head a bit, scowling as he turned to leave, staggering out of the room. The rest of the room hadn't gone too swimmingly, most of the time Ren just slept off his depression after his shower, feebly attempting to clean himself off more than just the dirt on the skin.

Nora rubbed at her face tiredly, hearing Ren whimper and mewl from where he was on the opposing side of the room. It hadn't been a good night, not at all. Ren had mumbled and talked to himself the all night, the male not having slept at all during the night, instead just rolling around, walking around the room and staring at the window blankly, watching the rain hit the window.

Ozpin himself had been to their room to speak to the team while Ren was showering, explaining the situation and the possible repercussion to their team if they themselves had broken any of the rules. Yet, he did relay one message to Jaune himself, asking if he still desired to work with Ren. Without skipping a beat, the blond haired man quickly replied with a resounding "yes". It wasn't going to be easy, the three of them having to be a wall for him. And possibly, try to convince him to go through with the requests before the looming deadline.

Nora had grown numb at this, the realization slowly sinking in, residing within her soul. She touched her chest when it tightened a bit, nodding whenever anyone spoke to her. She had grown uncomfortably quiet, even when Ozpin left, and Pyrrha tried to come up with a strategy to deal with Ren, which fell on deaf ears.

At some point during the night, when Ren returned to the room after his shower, Jaune and Pyrrha had gotten tired of dealing with him, instead leaving the room and deciding to sleep in the same room with Team RWBY. It had been a tough night; the four barely had enough room for themselves, but hesitantly allowed the two to room with them. No one wanted to kick Ren out, a dull concern for him of what would happen if he was removed from their room.

Nora was the only one left. She wasn't exactly sure why, either. Anger was present within her, blankly staring at him from under the covers of her blanket, staying in her bed and not approaching at all during the night. There was no reason for her to sleep with him as usual. Her heart ached, hating how he had abused her in such a way. Weren't they partners? Why would he lie to her like that…?

A few times, Ren had approached her during the night, towering over her and staring blankly at her, as if wondering if she was awake. Her eyes would only open when she heard him shuffling away, grumbling slightly to himself. The young woman refused to acknowledge him, at least, not until she could get her emotions all organized.

Nora swore that she had even heard him call her name a few times weakly from where he would stand in different parts of the room. Weak little whimpers, the trembling wreck of her partner desperate for her help. Yet she ignored him every time, tears running down into her temples as she covered her eyes with her forearm, a testimony to his withdrawal of addiction.

He wasn't exactly a perfect student anymore, or ever really was, she realized through his quaking form on the bed on the far end of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Ren stared out at the front of the classroom, his face blank, knee bouncing a bit anxiously as he tapped his pen on the table top. The jittery student found himself trapped inside a bubble, the towering walls around him beginning to fall in upon him, making him cower within his chair. After nearly three days without his precious drug, his heart racing, mind running far too quickly for him to keep up, the body aches and the cramps made him so damn antsy and wondering when his next fix was coming.

Oh, wait.

Those damn teachers are trapping him here, restraining him from the precious drug that he needed to literally survive. Once two days had passed, he felt himself having a panic attack for the first time in nearly two years. During and after it's occurrence, had locked himself in the bathroom, struggling to breathe as he frantically tried to wash away his worries in a hot shower, yet it hadn't had any effect on him, even when he switched the dial drastically, the freezing water splashing on his skin succeeding in shocking him, but nothing for the desperate breathing and his trembling form.

Nora had been the one to support him, to his surprise. Despite his naked form, she had forced the door open, and dried him off with a stoic expression, not saying a word as she helped him to his feet and tied the towel around his waist. Not a word left her lips as she lead him to the bed, slowly lowering him down on the mattress and sitting down next to him, singing softly to him the lullaby the caretakers would hum to them when they couldn't sleep.

Ren had felt numb, cold to the bone and shaking, feebly tugging the blanket around his sopping wet form. Yet no matter the crying words he let out, of anger, hatred, or mere sadness, Nora continued to hum the lyrics of the soft lullaby to him, smiling down as she rubbed his shoulders and moved down his back, rubbing at the stiff battle scars he had gotten. Most of his 'battle scars' were merely from little accidents he had as a child, Nora sharing a few matching ones herself.

Her hands moved smoothly down his back, over the hills and rolls of his jutting bones and flesh, and dipping gently into the contours of his form. Ren felt his body relaxing, relishing in her touch and the soothing sound of her voice, his breathing softening into soft little wisps of air through his scarred nostrils, her hands working their way through the tough kinks and aches in his body. The heat of her hands melted into his solid, frozen body, whisking away the droplets still left on his skin, melding him into the shape of her choosing.

Breathing softening, his body sinking into the mattress, he vaguely felt the fresh, fluffy towel working it's way through his long hair, her soft humming still reverberating within himself as he felt her fingers working through the mess of his hair, managing to carefully detangle the knots present. Slowly, she formed it into a long braid down his back, and pressed a few kisses to his temple and forehead, whispering softly little words of love as she stood, leaving him be as she went back to her business.

Their energy was shared, connected in a complicated way that only they seemed to be able to grasp the concept of. At times, she drained him completely, making him struggle to keep up. Yet, at circumstances like this one he was trapped in, he was running wild, tied down only by Nora's calm demeanor to keep him still and to take away the excess energy. To manage to quiet his jittery and anxious being into one of serenity, Nora was the only one able to now, without the use of his precious dust. He so desperately needed her by his side, or else—

"What's the answer, Ren?"

Ren was rudely snapped out of his comfortable memory, blinking dumbly over at the teacher, who stared at him with narrowed eyes, his foot taping as he waited for the answer. The young man glanced over at his teammates, who stared right back and him, and he turned back towards the teacher. Guess he was alone with this one; defenseless and unaware in the gaping mouth of the predator. "Uh…"

"Mhmm. 'Uh' is not the answer, Mr. Lie." Mr. Port huffed a bit, then tapped the desk in front of where the confused young man sat at. "Welcome to class, Mr. Lie."

Ren groaned slightly, his ears growing a tinge of pink on them as he slowly slumped down in his seat, struggling to avoid the snickers and giggles of his other students. Life hadn't been too easy so far for the fighter; news went around far too fast for his liking. Everyone had seen his face plastered all over the breaking news. Those who hadn't witnessed the broadcast that night overheard from others gossiping about the idea of one of their own a simple thief.

Instead of Jaune the center of Team CRDL's attention, he found himself trapped within their cruel circle. Whenever he would pass them by, a shove would be thrown his way, sending him sprawling against the opposing wall with a sickening thud, snickers leaving their lips as they taunted and teased the young man, who could do nothing but basically grin and bear it. After a fight yesterday, Ozpin threatened expulsion immediately, reminding him of his week deadline, and what could happen if their agreement had been terminated.

"Mr. Lie, I don't expect you to be perfect, but I also am not advising you to take out your anger over the situation on the other students."

Mr. Lie this, Mr. Lie that…everyone was acting as if he was a cold hearted criminal. In the back of his mind he vaguely understood their reasoning – he was on probation, anyways. One wrong move and he was kicked out. He was supposed to be the perfect student, a shining example to other citizens of Vale. A light in the way of darkness, a student at the prestigious school of Beacon.

And here he was, sitting with a slightly grumpy attitude in Mr. Port's class, listening to the words of his wisdom with a blank stare. His pencil tapped and scratched against the notepad, yet no words were recorded. A soft hum left his lips, and he leaned back, shutting his eyes briefly. Heart racing, blood rushing, he felt too frantic, too full of nervous energy, eager to get out of this damn room and do something more suiting to his needs. A distraction…oh he so desperately needed one of those.

Nothing had been helpful to his ailing conditions. Nora could only calm him down when his attacks had already happened, yet nothing could prevent it. He felt sick as a dog, angry and volatile at the slightest nudge, only to falter and fall to his knees, weakened and pained after such a high use of energy. Was this withdrawal? Whatever it was, it had begun to divide his team up, with him as the cause.

Pyrrha and Jaune were growing a bit sick of having to deal with him, evident by their sighs and the rolls of their eyes whenever he'd grow a bit paranoid. "A bit" was growing to be a bit of an understatement, especially after a recent meltdown after a combat test, where he had started screaming at the young woman when she easily won. Something had snapped within him, acting like a spoiled brat and spewing words of nonsense. It had taken two other students to hold him back when he almost threw a punch at her. What exactly…had he been mad at exactly that made him act that way?

Whatever it was, Pyrrha was no longer speaking to him.

And of course, whatever Pyrrha did, Jaune followed his partner dutifully.

Really, Ren was tragically all alone within himself, feebly clinging onto Nora.

Shin slowly stepped into the dim moonlight, removing the plastic mask from his face and tossing it to the side, a deep frown marring his face as it skittered off into the darkness, the tall man brushing back feathery raven hair. Usually he had stood proud before his business partner, but now, he had become overridden by anger and disgust, arms crossed over his broad chest. His breathing came in heavy clumps of air, the distaste radiating off of him.

It didn't take much for Roman to realize Shin's arrival right behind him, smirking as he relit his cigar, the smoke billowing around him. A small hum left his lips, swiveling around as he swung his, a pleased expression present on his face, completely opposing the stiff posture Shin was holding. Finally, the cane came down on the cement floor of the warehouse, snickering softly as the redhead approaching him with a few small steps.

"So, how was the heist?" A sarcastic little chuckle of jubilee left his lips, leaning back a bit on his heels, a hand resting on his waist. When the taller man scoffed a bit and rolled his eyes, another soft giggle left the red headed man's lips, tipping his hat towards him. "I can tell, it went absolutely splendid, didn't it? Oh, what happened to your little Beacon brother? That Chinese piece of shit."

Shin snarled a bit, his ruby eyes snapping open as he gnashed his teeth together, thrusting his hands outwards towards Roman's throat, but he was easily deflected by the barrier put up as the man's cane. "Shut the fuck up, you fucking cracker. Damn little leprechaun I oughta—"

"What's the matter, Chink? Did I offend you?" Roman cooed softly, then scoffed a bit, rolling his eyes as he easily shoved the other away, the taller man having to stumble back and slam against the rows of crates to get himself balanced once again. Panting heavily, chest heaving, Shin forced himself up once again, but was soon pushed down by the onslaught of Roman's abuse.

"What the hell was that plastered all over the news?!" Roman yelled, his cane smashing against the other man with a snort, eyes narrowing dangerously as he watched him fall to the floor. "Your stupid brother nearly got the entire heist ruined! Why, I couldn't change the channel at all without finding his dumb, deer-in-headlights expression on the breaking news of every goddamned channel!"

Shin lifted an arm up in a feeble attempt to defend himself, but was soon kicked squarely in the chest, sprawling out on his back with a soft grunt. Roman towered over him, and he swore that smoke was coming from his ears as well as his cigar. "Now that fucking Chink of your goddamn brother can't help us anymore! Good going! He's probably going to squeal about our plans now, you son of a bitch! We have to rethink everything because of your stupidity. And my own for trusting you with that bastard!"

"I told you to shut up about my brother!"

"Or else what?" Roman snickered softly, standing up straight and leaning back against the table once again, taking a deep drag of his cigar as he watched the taller individual scramble to his feet, standing before him in a defensive stance, preparing for the next inevitable blow. The air in the room became tense, Shin's muscles tightening as he narrowed his eyes at Roman, who seemed very pleased to just laugh and giggle to himself as he watched the criminal, seeming amused just by his presence now.

"Yo…what's so funny?" Shin mumbled a bit, rubbing his wrist on his lips when he felt himself drooling a bit, his fingers trembling a bit. Dammit. It would take a few hours to purify and meld the dust down into a snortable substance, yet his body craved it now, evident by his soft grunts and quaking form. Roman's squealing figure didn't do much else to calm the nervous wreck that was taking over. "Hey! Shut up! You're freaking me out man! Just stop!"

Roman waved a hand towards him, snickering to himself as he finally quieted down. "Are all you Japs this stupid? You really think you have a chance against me? You think you can tell me what to do? I can talk all I want about your idiot brother. You can't deny how he screwed up this entire operation for us. Without that strength within Beacon, our plan is kaput."

"What…?" Shin's expression slowly turned to one of disbelief, his hands lowering as he stood up again, watching Roman closely. "…you can't be serious. You were really gonna use Ren with the big plan? Aye, Boss, I don't think that's the smartest decision. He's a skittish fellow."

"Of course I know that. After that wonderful spectacular, I'm cutting him out of the deal. If he's stupid enough to get caught with the cops and have to give up all of his stolen loot, he's not worth my time." Roman sighed, tapping his cigar, watching the little cinders flutter to the ground. "You barely got out of there. That promotion I was thinking about giving you is in the can now, buddy. Nice try, but no. You're really gonna have to impress me by pay day if you want the dough."

"Alright boss, alright." Shin scowled slightly, tugging his hood down a bit more, his ruby eyes staring at Roman, unreadable and silent. "Ren's out of the picture now, I guess…so now it's just up to me?"

"You are the leader of the Drug Deals for White Fang, are you not? The sole leader now, your little apprentice flew the coop."

"Yeah, yeah." Shin waved him away, turning around and stuffing his hands in the soiled and ruffled pockets of the old black hoodie he wore. The faint print of the Beacon Academy logo was present in the old material, worn away by years of use and misuse. He brushed a hand down his chest and belly, before swiveling around to him again, toying with the strings in the hood a bit. "So Ren's out of the question now. We can leave him alone now, right? Just let him finish up his time at Beacon and—"

Roman began to laugh again, Shin returning to that disgusted grimace as he watched him. His eyes rolled; here we go again. Yet this time, the ginger strode up to the taller man, easily grabbing his face in a powerful grip, forcing him to lock eyes with him.

"Listen to me. That fuck up isn't going to ruin our chances of being rich, you got that." His hand slid down to grip the other man's throat, and he gasped, a few wisps of dust leaving his lips as he tried to pry the other man's hands away. Yet his efforts proved futile, the butt end of his cane slowly opening up and pointed right at his temple, the smell of the sparkling dust overwhelming the senses.

Roman snickered softly at his startled reaction, grinning darkly. "Listen good, you piece of shit. That Asian little bitch is probably going to be squealing away like a pig at the slaughter house to that damned Headmaster about our secrets. You know he will. He'll be manipulated by his team to tell Ozpin your name, and completely spill about our plans. Now, I don't want that, and I'm sure you don't either. Am I right, Lie?"

Shin opened his mouth to speak, but a small squeak came out when Roman squeezed tighter, frantically clawing at his hands. "I didn't give you permission to speak, Jap." He hissed in his ear, humming slightly as he rested against him. "Now where was I…oh yes, right, right. I don't trust your brother, not at all. Especially if he's working with Red and that pretty Kitty. You know what I want you to do?"

This time, Shin said nothing, which made Roman roll his eyes and release his throat. Gasps and whimpers left the other's lips, taking in quick inhales of air as he struggled to recalibrate his senses, Roman clicking his tongue as he shoved his shoulder. "I wanted you to answer that, you idiot."

Whining softly, Shin rubbed at his throat, looking up at him a bit tiredly. He gave some sort of pout, before rolling his eyes. "Nah, I don't know. What do ya want me to do? Just go up to him and tell him no?" he asked sarcastically, yet he was hopelessly wishing that it would be the truth.

"No. I want you to make sure that he won't tell anyone anything about what he had been doing on the side, you got that?" Roman smirked. "And now you're puny little brain is probably wondering this: how do I want you to go about this? Well, it's quite simple, really. Go, and make sure his cute little team betrays him. Make it known what he's done. Make them hate him."

Shin frowned at that, struggling to keep up. "But uh, Sir…didn't you just say you don't want it to get out about what we're doing? Isn't that like, opposite of what you wanted to do—"

A resounding slap echoed throughout the empty warehouse, Shin falling back on his rear end, the seething Roman towering about him. "Would you shut up for about three seconds?!" he paused for a few moments, stroking his hair back with a hum. "Stay cool, Torchwhick…" he cleared his throat, then continued, walking slowly in circles around Shin, who stared at him with curiosity and slight fear. He didn't need to get hit again. Today hasn't been a good day for him.

"Listen here and listen good." He scoffed, giving him a light nudge with his foot, snickering when the other scrambled away quickly. "I want you to threaten him. I want you to tell your brother and show him all of the things he did get tangled up in. Show him what he's going to become. Someone like you. I want you to wear him down to nothing, and make his team betray him. Do whatever the fuck you want to them. Two of the team members are ladies, aren't they? Show those bitches who's boss. And that loser team leader. Knock him around a bit. Do whatever you have to do."

Shin scowled a bit. "…alright…alright…well…is Ren gonna get hurt?"

"I won't touch your brother at all. Just wait until he comes crawling back here…he's a bad kid, Shin. He won't last a week without his precious dust." Roman snickered, tossing his cigar aside, the light slowly dimming out in the warehouse.

Ren stuffed more of the granola bar in his mouth, grumbling a bit to himself as he walked back to the vending machine in the far end of the large hallway. Reaching deep into his pocket, he grasped the few bills he still had left on him, stuffing them into the machine, which then spit out the snacks he desired. Swallowing the rest of the granola, he groaned slightly, a hand resting on his slightly distended belly as he bent down with a pained grunt, tossing the snacks into his bag.

Nothing seemed to help with the crippling withdrawal symptoms. His anger and violent outbursts were going to get him kicked out far too quickly, before his week deadline was up. Well, he only had about a day and a half left anyways, but that was beside the point, he scoffed to himself as he tossed the wrapper out in the garbage nearby. The only thing that soothed the anxious young man was, unfortunately, eating. It wasn't the idea of having a full stomach, no, it was having something in his mouth to chew on and keep his hands busy as well. Gum had no effect on him either; he absolutely despised it. Despite feeling absolutely sick from the sugary treats, he still found himself continuing to eat, if only to keep himself distracted from the painful craving of drugs.

A light little belch left Ren's lips, and he quickly grew flustered with disgust, a hand resting daintily on his mouth as he looked around, desperate to make sure that he had been alone. He had managed to tell Nora that he was going to the bathroom in order to leave class without suspicions, when it was really only to jog down to the cafeterias and visit his good friend the vending machine. This recent addiction to food was making him even more grumpy and cranky, yet it was calming down the initial effects of the withdrawal. The distraction was what he had desperately needed.

Unfortunately, to his misfortune, he found himself smashed against the nearby wall with a small grunt. The snacks stored for safe keeping crunched fatally, and he grimaced. There goes his savior for later. Scoffing, he stood up straight, turning around sharply, only to sigh and roll his eyes, tossing his bag over his shoulder.

"Hey, move." Ren snorted, trying to push past the well-known school jerks. When they didn't budge, instead sneered at him and made a few rude gestures at him, his eyes narrowed. No, no, no. Now was not the time for this shit. After the multiple fights he got in within five days, another one spelled doom for him. Of course, they all happened to be with these grunts. Ren narrowed his eyes a bit at them, holding his satchel protectively close to his chest.

"What are you deaf or something? I said get out of my way." Ren huffed, eyes narrowed and focused on Cardin, struggling to put down the challenging emotions flaring up. When the leader didn't move, he sighed and rolled his eyes. "Listen. I don't have time for you losers—"

"What? You have to go rob a bank?" Russel teased with a hooting laughter, far more amused with himself than everyone else as he shoved Ren forcefully against the locker once more. Like skyscrapers in an intimidating city, they towered over him unforgivingly, within the claws of the predator. The only good thing that Ren could think about his situation was that at least Jaune was forgotten about for the time being, becoming the focus of the nasty team's attention. "You criminal, you don't belong here."

"Don't you idiots hear a word I say?" Ren snapped, feeling his muscles tighten up as he narrowed his gnashed his teeth together. Anger began to boil within him. The frustration of not having his precious drugs, being caught red handed with his stash, and now having to suffer the terrible agony of his withdrawal alone, he desired to just take his negative powers and emotions out on these men that desperately deserved it in his mind.

"You freak! What do you have in the bag?" Cardin snickered, yanking the book bag forcefully from Ren's hands, shamelessly going through his bag. Dove and and Lark glanced to one another briefly, then quickly tried to grab at Ren's wrists, fearful of another attack by his hand. Yet, Ren did nothing, merely staring blankly at Cardin as he yanked out his treasures, appearing confused as he held bags of cookies and other fattening treats in his hands.

"What? I told you. I'm not a criminal." At least, not anymore, he thought quietly to himself as he saw the ruffled bags being dropped quite roughly to the ground, Ren doing nothing but letting himself be painfully restrained by the two lackeys while their leaders helped themselves through his bag. "Are you trying to be good citizens or something by looking through my bag?" he added sarcastically with a loud exhale. "I didn't know that getting food from the vending machine was illegal. Excuse me. I'll just help myself to the police station then. Sorry for all the trouble, Officer Cardin."

Ren's head was snapped back against the locker, and he could feel himself spinning as he crumpled slightly against the locker and Lark, coughing with a few dry heaves. Contents of his stomach churning, he began to feel sick from being jostled around. Acid from his stomach came to make a visit in his mouth, and he felt disgusted with himself thoroughly, coughing and swallowing frantically.

Of course his increased snacking habits would come back to bite him right when he needed to defend himself. Of course.

"Shut up." Damp and clammy fingers suddenly clasped around his throat, squeezing tightly as a few more punches were thrown in his bruised face and his tightly swollen stomach, a few grunts and groans leaving his lips. Don't fight back. Don't fight back. Don't you dare fight back Ren. "You don't belong here in Beacon."

"You can't even fight back, can you? Haha, you pathetic little worm!"

"I don't know why you just don't leave Beacon, you trash."

"You've got no one else, anyways. Your team hates you. No one would take you back in after all that damn disappointment you've brought upon Beacon. I would just leave."

At some point he met the cold tile ground, but made no attempt to get up, allowing himself to curl up, even as a few sharp kicks were fired into his already sore body. The offending jabs did not ail him, rather, it was the pained words that entered his mind. In all honesty…what was he doing here? He was likely just going to drag his team down with him. There was no point. Pyrrha had lost her respect for him after he had said a few rather nasty things to her. Jaune wasn't sure what to think, but he did know that he wasn't too thrilled with what had been revealed about Ren's character. And Nora…she was trying to support him any way that she could, but…was it all really because she cared? Or was it a guilt that wracked her soul thoroughly.

He…he wasn't a bad guy. Right?

Ren slowly opened his eyes when he heard a loud yell, feebly lifting his head when Lark and Dove were thrown off of him. As Cardin was stumbling backwards and Russel jumping away, Ren was able to sit up, and was met with a startling surprise.

His team was there, standing before him. Their backs to him, facing off against the enemy. Breathing quickly through his mouth, Ren struggled a bit, attempting to get back up to his feet to be beside him. He appeared surprised once more when Jaune gripped him and easily hauled the other to his feet, giving a weak little lopsided grin as he turned back to Team CRDL. Clapping his back quickly, he whispered softly to him,

"Don't worry. We got your back, buddy."

Ren's face was comical, absolutely spooked at the realization. The thoughts that had begun to mar his mind slowly faded away at that small little revelation. We got your back buddy. They…they were there for him. Just a simple sentence managed to make him smile a bit, off in his own little world as his team turned their attention towards him. Maybe…maybe he wasn't as…alone…as he originally thought. Just maybe…

"Ren!" Nora cried, touching his sides quickly as she tugged him forward into a tight embrace, the young man falling into her grip, his head resting against his shoulder. This time, it was her chance to be surprised, especially when he returned the gesture, holding her tightly to his slim form. Warmth between them erupted briefly, especially when Ren nestled his head against her shoulder.

"I'm…so sorry Nora." Ren choked out briefly, before sighing softly, going numb in her hold, especially when she began to rub his back with soothing gestures. "I'm sorry."

"You never came back from the bathroom." Nora pouted a bit at him, appearing overwhelmed slightly with his almost entire weight pressed against her. "Class ended without you…so we wanted to check on you."

"You were back getting more food." Pyrrha rolled her eyes a bit with a small sigh. "You're going to get fat at this rate. We're going to have to roll you around to each class at some point, aren't we?" she let a small little giggle slip out, tightening her ponytail as she looked to the two.

"Food's the only thing that stops these damn cravings." Ren grumbled slightly to himself, hesitantly pulling himself away from Nora, but carefully rested his hands on her hips, not willing her to leave his side. Not yet. "I know that at the rate I'm going, stuffing my face even when I'm full to bursting, I'm going to gain a lot of weight. There's nothing I can do about it for the time being."

"I-I guess I'm going to have to give more training to do!" Jaune squeaked out, chuckling nervously at Ren's bewildered expression. "Yeah…! I have to make sure everyone's in tip-top fighting shape! As Team Leader, I have to make sure you're ok and support my other teammates, right? If you need help, we'll be there to help you! So if you need to work out more, I'll make it happen!"

Ren snickered a bit at that, brushing his bangs out of his face to see Jaune's overly proud posture and expression, a few laughs coming out when he got a better look. "Alright, alright. I guess I'm gonna have to get to work then, aren't I?"

At Jaune's little sound of approval and his nod, Ren sighed and rolled his eyes, turning towards Pyrrha. Yet, the sight of her slight scowl and her uncomfortable demeanor made him shake his head, mumbling softly under his slightly heaving breaths – why did he feel like he was going to be sick? Damn that heavy sugar intake—as he muttered what appeared to be an apology.

Unfortunately for him, she had to lean closer to him, raising an eyebrow and questioning what he had just uttered. Giving a weak little grumble, he finally sighed out,

"I'm sorry for calling you a whore. And…a bunch of other nasty things I'm not going to bother to repeat."

Pyrrha's eyes visibly widened, and slowly, she sighed, giving a few short, brief nods. "It's…ok. It hurt a bit, but…" she shook her head. "No, no. It's fine. Just, don't worry about it. You weren't in the right state of mind. I'm sorry for calling you a jackass."

"That one I think I deserved." Ren laughed a bit again, pressing an open palm into the center of his abdomen. Despite his clenching stomach, aching form, and the pressure in his skull, he felt…content. The air and thoughts that had previously attacked him were now dissipated. Maybe…maybe his team would support him. Maybe he wasn't exactly alone anymore. A bit lost and confused…but so long as he wasn't alone, maybe he could move forward.

Ren began to step away from the group, slowly speeding up to a jog as he tossed his bag over his shoulder, glancing over at his team as he left. "I'll see you next class! I gotta drop something off at Professor Ozpin's office!"

Maybe he could finally heal.


	4. Chapter 4

"…what the hell?"

Glynda gave a small hum of amusement, her pen scratching against the pad as Ren stared in bewilderment. The scale beeped as he stepped off, resetting as it awaited for the next job it had to do. His hands shook a bit as he stumbled a bit backwards, swallowing heavily as he tugged his green overcoat back on, struggling a bit to button it up over the offending mass on his abdomen.

A soft little chuckle left Glynda's lips, turning her head towards him slightly as he made a grumbling noise, tugging down the fabric when it bunched around his midsection. "Well now, Mr. Lie. That's slightly surprising coming from you. Hm…actually. It's not too much."

"I know, I know." Ren waved his hand towards the teacher, rolling his eyes as he awkwardly crossed his arms over his midsection, making his way past the line of the other boys and girls towards where his team was waiting for him, sitting beside Team RWBY.

Health tests like these were common, especially for future hunters and huntresses. At least one every month, to make sure a proper weight was maintained, as well as everything else was in perfect shape to function. All the senses were working in top order, and nothing that could possibly hinder a warrior's training. Usually prepared in a quick session; while groups were sparring, the other groups prepared themselves with these quick run throughs. Of course, a weight and height test was involved as well, unfortunately for the heavier individual.

It had spelled doom for Ren's health test, unfortunately. A rapid gain of body mass of that nature, it was barely a joking matter anymore. Yet, Ms. Goodwitch was able to easily snicker at his faults, despite the axiomatic fact of his dust addiction. Former addiction, one could muse at this point in time. The young man had been sober for a little past two months. Completely sober, not a single particle of dust having gone up his nose or past his lips.

The withdrawal symptoms were still heavy within Ren's system. Cravings were persistent and much more of a nuisance than anything. His anxiety attacks and depression were prevalent within his day to day life, at times having one or two a day; paranoia over the coming class, lack of confidence in a school project or activity, the times were numerous. Dreams would plague his mind of a horrifying nature, of a beast within himself destroying her, shrapnel ribboning him, or ending one way or another where he or her would end up dead and covered in gore.

Despite all that, especially when many would consider his fears insignificant, his team would strive to make him feel better. In ways that were astounding, their patience stretched, where their abilities would become even greater. Instead of arguing with him and calling his stresses pathetic, they would instead touch and rub his shoulders and back until he would be soothed, reminding him of their presence. Agreeing with him when he would almost come close to tears over his homework or a project, sit with him until he would finally get it right and overcome it. Or even just sitting with him and having coffee and some snacks until he was calmed. It was similar to coaxing an upset child to do an activity they despised, yet this was not a child.

This was their partner, Lie Ren. Who's stoic and powerful façade had dissipated away into a being of constant fear and disturbance. A young boy who needed his hand to be held, to be carried where he was needed, to guide him towards goals he believed were truly unreachable.

Slowly, Ren stood beside Nora, where she was happily chatting away to Ruby and Weiss about her own sort of dream she had last night. A small sigh left his lips, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets – when had they grown tighter too? He could barely squeeze his fingers in –listening intently to what was uttered from her happily chatty mouth.

Something about her and him fighting some insane creature that didn't exist? A norm at this point. He ignored the fact that she had not slept too much that night, having to console him after a vivid nightmare of some sort of beast that had attacked them in the Emerald Forest—

Wait a minute. Was that…? Nora…

"And then like, Ren punched the realllly tall Dragon Grimm in the jaw! He sucker punched him! Ka-pow!" Nora threw a few jab at the air, giggling softly to herself. "It was totally cool and totally weird. That's why I love dreams!" she paused, whirling around when she felt him brush against her, grinning a bit. "Speaking of the hero himself!"

Ren appeared flustered at that, the seven pairs of eyes fixated on him again. He swallowed a bit, giving a weak little nod to them. Nora latched onto his arm, chuckling softly as she snuggled up to his side with a small hum. Slowly, he sighed, wrapping an arm around her form to hold her closer, exhaling briefly.

"So, Ren." Yang began with a sweet little snicker, brushing her long, wild mane behind her shoulder. She placed her hands daintily on her hips, giggling softly as she managed to choke out between her loud chuckles: "How fat did ya get?"

"Oh shut up." Ren rolled his eyes, exhaling loudly as he felt Nora tug a little tighter on his arm. "I didn't gain any weight. None at all. What are you talking about?"

"Your gut tells another story, Mr. Defensive." Ruby snickered from where she stood beside Yang, giving her a high five. Ren just stared at them with a blank gaze, self-consciously placing a hand on his swollen belly, hating how it jutted out a bit noticeably now. No longer was it able to be hidden easily under his clothes, exposing the methods he was using to cope with his withdrawal.

Food. Glorious food. He never really had too much of a relationship with food, finding himself surprised when he immediately went to it for his nourishment and his comfort. Now he understood a bit about the concept of "comfort food." Oh boy was he comforted.

"What? I only gained a little bit of weight." Ren mumbled softly, Nora chuckling softly at his meek reaction, snuggling up to him. "What's that called…? Like uh…oh yeah! It's just the Freshman-fifteen. Everyone gets it. Besides, I'm not going to try to explain myself, anyways." A loud exhale left his lips, rolling his eyes. "It's no big deal."

"I told you this would happen!" Jaune whined slightly from where he stood beside Pyrrha and Ruby, crossing his arms a bit as he narrowed his eyes at his teammate. Like a little nervous kitten, the scraggly blonde feebly tried to make a point against the stronger, more skilled male. "You ate a few pound cakes, and gained a few pounds!"

Ren merely gave a small huff and rolled his eyes. In the grand scheme of things, it was truly insignificant, only evident by his naturally slim form. He felt no need to be upset over it truly. Especially not when in the depths of his withdrawal, he still needed the distraction of constant eating. Supposing he actually tried to stick to a stricter diet regime and fitness training, maybe he could tone himself one more.

Glancing down at Nora again, he blinked at her, the smaller huntress giggling up at him and hugging his arm sweetly, resting her cheek against his shoulder. A small smile tugged at his lips, letting her hang onto him as he looked up again at the other girls, quietly observing the conversations they had about the recent tests and other school work, the bouncing little red head piping in occasionally.

Though, he paused, eyes narrowing when he locked eyes with Weiss. Something about her felt…off with him. Her treatment to him, usually not exactly the warmest but…something had been different. Despite being sober for more than two months, and his relationship shaking but slowly reforming, he found that whatever was between him and the heiress had quickly nosedived for the worse.

Yang had informed him that this was similar to what had happened with the young faunus, but even she had remarked of the strangeness of the situation. She had quickly taken back her remarks of the white fang once she had realized the trueness of Blake's character, yet she would not stop with the cruel taunts and sneers towards Ren.

Not that it mattered to him too much, he realized with the roll of the eyes. Never did he care too much for her, and likely she didn't anyways. Everyone else was friends with each other, the two teams, yet he personally preferred Nora over others. Yet, considering it after a moment's thought, he realized that he quite like Blake's company. He could have a good book conversation with her, or a good chess game. Maybe he could try to be closer to her. Something he could take into consideration.

The brief moments to themselves were suddenly shattered, ending sharply as Glynda quietly stepped onstage. She walked briskly, clearing her throat as she began to list the necessary jobs and what had to be done for their next school assignment. A fairly easy one, they all assumed. Go and get fruit from the frozen lakes up in the North, a good few hours' distance. Despite the long journey, it would be a bit relaxing in the long run. Not many Grimm sightings, and the fruit was known to be delicious and ripe this time of year. Something they were all personally looking forward to. A break from everyday Beacon life.

The doors suddenly swung open, all heads turning towards the source of the noise disrupting Glynda. Her eyes narrowed a bit, and then rolled when she saw Professor Ozpin slowly hobble into the room, that all too familiar cup of coffee present in his hand. He gave a small chuckle when he saw her, winking a bit as he slowly walked up the steps to stand beside Glynda, all eyes now trained on him. The cane thudded soft against the ground with each step he took, finally resting at his side when he reached his destination.

A loud clearing of the throat was heard, Glynda hesitantly stepping off center stage to stand towards the side, watching him with curiosity, as well as the rest of the students. Silence overtook the gymnasium, as Ozpin scanned the room, focusing on the two teams in the back corner for a few moments, before smirking. "…now that I have your attention." He cleared his throat a bit, a smirk appearing on his face.

Glynda scoffed a little, soon approaching him again, but was clearly startled when his jacket was thrown at her face, the mug gingerly placed in her hands as he rolled his sleeves up. Stepping back with a heavy hobble to another side of the stage, he clutched onto the head of his cane, seeming to be preparing his body for something as he spread his feet apart. Ignoring his wife's fumes, he turned back towards the wide eyed viewers, that smirk still present on his face.

"I know you're all preparing for your field trip up to the Frozen Lakes. But, I'm sure you all have a minute, don't you?" he crossed his arms, standing up straight, the black vest clutching onto his long sleeved green shirt, bunched up at his elbows, forearms bare. "This is a brief exercise I do every year. I'll get right to the point—if a student can knock me down, no weapons, aura use, or semblance used, then there will be great benefits."

Ozpin's hand was raised when he heard the first wave of excited voices and wondrous eyes before him, struggling to receive again the quietness that he desired. Like that was going to happen, he mused with a roll of his eyes. "But, before all of you start getting excited, in all of my years of being the headmaster, not a single student has managed to knock me down. Not one. And ask any of your teachers, I have been here for quite a few years."

That lulled silence came back after his booming, echoing voice had spoken, a few students appearing a bit flustered at that. Even Glynda sighed quite loudly at that, obviously having not been informed of his arrival and sudden test on the students. The very brief eruption of chatter was now gone, the bright eyed young warriors mumbling to themselves before slowly looking back at the teacher, everyone frazzled and struggling to take in the concept.

Fight their teacher…? Win and get unnamed benefits?

"I'll do it!"

All heads turned towards Cardin, locked on him as he sauntered up towards the stairs of the stage, easily jogging up them and across from where Ozpin was. The professor tossed his cane over to Glynda, who still watched him with narrowed eyes. He turned back to the cocky young knight, who had that dumb smirk on his face, feeling as if he could easily take glory for his team, God's gift to the world.

Yet, his dream would quickly be demolished. No time was wasted to lunge forward, a fist raised towards the professor's head. Ozpin locked his knees, raising his hands as he stared at the incoming target, and without breaking a sweat, he caught the fist and palmed Cardin in the stomach, sending him stumbling onto his back harshly.

The older individual snorted softly, rubbing his hands on his vest as he looked towards the crowd again. That look of an impressive pride was now gone, replaced with slight annoyance. "Come on. I know that at a school for warriors, I would assume the strongest one of you would propose at least somewhat of a challenge."

Cardin slowly got to his feet, snarling a bit. "No fair! Do-over! Come on!"

The professor shrugged. "No. You had your chance. Now you be fair and let someone else go. You offered to go first. That's your own fault." He glanced off the stage again. "Who's next? Remember. Just knock me over. That's all. I'm sure one of you can do this."

"Ozpin. You do this every year. You're just wasting all of our time." Glynda huffed, rolling her eyes as she watched Cardin walk off stage in a huff, rejoining his group, who all laughed at him. "Every single year. It's ridiculous. You're a teacher, and they're just students. Why start something now? Come on down here, and put an end to this."

Ozpin's own eyes mimicked hers at that, huffing loudly. "Glynda. I know what I'm doing. I'm trying to convey a message here. Please, Glynda. I will not take up much more of your time. Isn't there anyone else who wants to try, at least? Come on. It's good training without your weapons, isn't it?"

A heavy cloud of despair overtook the room, a few mumbling to their comrades. The question hung in the air, wondering what the point of the entire thing was. A message? What was the point of this practice? Could anyone even win against a teacher with much more years of experience? Well…the honor of being the first one, as Ozpin had said, would be absolutely lovely.

After much consideration, another student volunteered, and then another, and a few more after that. Confidence bubbled up within the trainees, words of excitement and strength floating between them as they frantically began to line up at the steps, wondering if they would be the one gifted enough to take down the head of their wonderful school.

Exhaling loudly, Weiss shook her head, crossing her arms. "No one's going to get it." She mumbled to herself, watching as another young man was easily thrown across the room with virtually no effort by Ozpin. "I don't understand why he's doing it anyways. What do you think, Ru—" she paused, looking startled when she saw her partner scampering away from her and rushing up on the stage to try her own attempt at the challenge presented. The pale young lady rolled her eyes, Blake chuckling softly as she watched her step onto the stage.

"Here we go." Yang mumbled, turning to better face the display, and laughter exploded from within her when Ruby slid across the floor, Ozpin easily deflecting her attempts at the jabs at his side and countering attacking her. "That was fast! A record, probably."

Nora giggled softly, standing on her tiptoes to get a better look. Slowly, one by one, each of the students attempting the attack on their professor were staggering off the stage in dismay, sent back with a loss hanging above their heads, licking at their wounds. Ozpin didn't even appear to be breaking a sweat, standing up straight as he awaited for the next challenger. The entire debacle had barely lasted twenty minutes, the teacher surveying the area, debating on calling it a close for the day.

When the powerful headmaster took a step forward to dismiss himself from the theatre, Nora suddenly grabbed the arm she was holding, grasping Ren's wrist and thrusting it in the air sharply. His body jolted a bit, and she called out loudly,

"Ren wants to take a chance!"

All eyes turned towards the pair, Ren's face turning just as pink as his bright magenta irises, stumbling forward as Nora began to drag him towards the stage. He weakly mumbled and fumbled with his words, but it was ignored as she gave him a forceful shove towards the stage. Jaune immediately got out of their way, their leader having feebly attempted the challenge after Pyrrha, watching Nora place Ren in his place on the stage. The little red head giggled, patting his side before hopping off with a small hum, following the ruffled and slightly bruised blonde back to their group.

Ozpin stared at Ren, raising an eyebrow as he went back to his position across from him, getting in his proper stance. Appearing stupefied, Ren blinked a few times, staring back at Nora, who waved at him, before looking back at his new opponent, spluttering for a few moments. How in the world did he get himself in this situation now? He was fat, frustrated, and probably no match. Well, maybe his new weight would weigh him down enough so the enemy couldn't toss him like a javelin across the room, he thought sarcastically.

"Come on." Ozpin ordered with a slight grunt, spreading his legs apart and opening his arms a tad, ready to catch a possible tackle. "Go on. Attack me. Hit me. You've got a lot of anger in you, don't you, fellow?"

At that, Ren tensed up, staring at him with wide eyes. Anger…an anger? What…? He blinked again, not saying a word as Ozpin continued.

"You're angry, aren't you? I mean, all of your fun has come to an end. No more abusing drugs, no more freedom that all of the other students get. Hell, your guns are still empty, no ammunition. You have an earlier curfew, stricter guidelines compared to everyone else." Something of a smirk appeared on his lips, pushing his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his middle finger. "You're on probation, and that hasn't affected you at all?"

A pause occurred within Ren, his hands slowly curling into fists as he stared down Ozpin, wondering what in the world he was trying to get at. Was privacy even an issue anymore, or was that thrown in the shitter? Yeah, just announce all of his problems to the student population. That was just great.

"Are you trying to make me angry? Because it's sure as hell working." Ren finally snapped out, wary of a heavy gag burden overtaking the entire room again. Nope. Not when he was here, on stage, in front of all these people. Dammit, he was really starting to hate crowds. First that damn security camera, and now this…

Ozpin smirked a bit, his posture relaxing as his hand fell to his sides, watching him with an observant stare. His hands slipped into his pockets nonchalantly, flouting him shamelessly over his lack of an attack, and then he hummed. "The fact that just pointing out what has happened to you, means that you haven't come to terms with it." A slight frown tugged at Ozpin's lips only briefly, before his eyes narrowed again. "You've ignored the truth, haven't you?"

"I'm not talking about this now." Those eyes all focused on him, staring at him, burning into him made him begin to sweat under his tight overcoat, and he coughed a bit, awkwardly shuffling his feet. What was so interesting about him, anyways? Oh, he was just being stupid now. He wasn't dumb. They all wanted to see the headmaster kick the drug addict's butt.

Not today.

Turning sharply, Ren gave a huff as Ozpin opened his mouth to speak again. With a few quick steps, he leaped off the stage, pushing past the startled viewers as he headed back to his team. That was it. That was the end of the conversation. No more. No one was going to dare point out his flaws to him again, especially the man that had saved his sorry ass. There was a tough tightness in his chest, restraining his emotions, or else the potential of another breakdown would arise. That would make his day absolutely lovely.

Ren slowly moved to stand back next to Nora, no one in their circle of friends saying a word, no one looking right at him. He shut his eyes when he heard his partner mumble a small apology, yet he did not respond to her remark, quietly trying to will the stress rising in his throat away. Vaguely he heard Glynda announce orders for everyone, preparing to head out for the trip to the frozen lakes, Ozpin gone already.

This was perfect. Just what he needed as he tried to readjust himself to school life after the amnesty given to him following his crimes. He needed to just look like a damn idiot in front of the entire school again. Second time in two months. And now he was going to be plunging in the frigid, bone chilling air of the Frozen Lakes. His gosh-darn favorite weather.

What could possibly go wrong?


	5. Chapter 5

Blake gave a disgruntled huff as the snowflake gently fell, landing softly on her nose, to which she quickly wiped away with a gloved mitt. Grumbling to herself, her hands wrapped around her form to try to tighten the thick winter coat around herself, burying her nose deep into the fabric of her wooly scarf. Frigid air bit at whatever exposed skin was visible, to which she frantically tried to remedy, despite the cold seeping through her clothes to nibble at her flesh.

She was not a big fan of the cold; this type of weather, bone chilling temperatures, made her want to curl up somewhere nice and cozy for warmth. Of course she felt this way, she thought sarcastically: she was a cat. And stereotypically, she enjoyed activities relating to domesticated felines, such as curling up with another person and getting all nice and snuggly. In this ice, she desired that as well, right now. Like, right this second. Soon she was going to start screaming; who decided on this trip anyways?

Apparently it was Beacon's job to harvest this one flower every year, almost like a type of official hazing given out by the staff. Make the freshman go and dig in the snow for some plants. Oh yes, that was high on Blake's list of things that she wanted to do. Yet, she needed the grade, and found herself walking with Weiss, the two trying to catch up with their team to get the job done as soon as possible. Blake's coat provided no resistance, despite the fleece interior and thickness of it, it did not restrain her movements as much as some of the other students. She resembled a black marshmallow, grumbling to herself with her earmuffs covering her ears, the bow struggling to conceal her cat ones.

Weiss wasn't fairing too well, either, Blake noticed with a little snicker under her breath. The coat that the young heiress had put up such a stink about wearing now was causing her to face deep regret in her decision. The high class fur coat proved insufficient; she was spending more time trying to brush off the falling snow off of her shoulders than actually trying to focus on their goal. Her stiff posture and trembling form proved evident of her chilly body –and disposition, the faunus teased to herself—and her white haired teammate locked eyes with her, a small pout present. Clearly for once, they shared the same opinion on the situation.

Curse this damn cold.

Weiss gave a low, loud sigh, watching the wisps of her breath climb up to the sky, scowling slightly. "What's the purpose of this anyways? Harvest some ice flowers or something? That we can't even use? Great. I'm not getting my new fur coat dirty."

Blake rolled her eyes, tugging her scarf to cover her beet red nose, grumbling softly, "I think Professor Glynda mentioned that it's a common courtesy to the people that live here. They've grown quite old, and they need to harvest the flowers before they interfere with their buisness. We volunteer—"

"We volunteer, or they volunteer us?" a sneer left Weiss' lips, causing Blake to toss daggers in return. "I personally don't want to do this, you know."

"Yes, yes. We all know." Blake sighed softly, her ears flicking a bit in annoyance. "But it is an honor to be at Beacon. We're here to be hunters and huntresses. If we need to help people pick the plants around the Frozen Lake before they become a problem, then so be it. I will rush to help."

Weiss said nothing at that, sighing softly as she followed Blake, the two quickening their pace when their destination slowly came into view.

It was a true definition of a winter wonderland. From the glittering ice covering the body of water, to the large specs of snow falling to conceal the vegetation on the massive trees that perfectly framed the picture, it was a beautiful sight. The canopy of branches formed a lovely path to the main attraction, the snow looking virtually untouched despite the students at different areas of the edge of the forest. Frequently the open area would be donned and decorated with different objects to make it more pleasurable on the eye depending on the time of year, a hearty vacation spot for the citizens of Vale. Including the cute little cabins dotting the horizon, connected by rocky paths, and wooden stairs and balconies, it was a stunning sight.

Blake and Weiss pushed open the gates adorned with embellishments and the beautiful wooden sign hanging from it, likely hand carved. The Frozen Lakes were closed to the public during this brief time of plucking the potentially dangerous flowers. They were spoken of being near deadly to the lake, but a few students were well aware that in all honesty, they were only plucked to be used for the school's interest and curiosity. The properties of the flowers were not concrete, despites years of research.

Or, perhaps it was the fact that Glynda's parents owned the property of the Frozen Lakes, and maybe she wanted to help them out with free labor. Whatever.

Suddenly, Blake gave a cry of surprise when ice cold snow was thrown in her face, causing her to stumble back and fall in the thick debris of weather. She scrambled to her feet, her fur ruffled a bit as she looked around for the source of the attack, and gave another squeak when she got assaulted from behind her. Frantically she spun around, then gave a loud huff of annoyance when she heard Ruby's loud laughter.

"Alright! Nice!" The dark haired young maiden high fived her partner in crime, Nora busy giggling happily, holding her own snowball in her gloved hands. Yet when she saw Blake's annoyed expression, she gave a cowardly little squeak, scampering away back to her older sister. The hammer wielding young huntress blinked in slight confusion, before laughing nervously, quickly following suit.

Blake huffed and rolled her eyes, brushing away the extra particles of the exploded snowball. Slowly, she jumped back to her feet, and with a small grunt, moved to join her team. She hated the snow. When would they go back to the cabin? Not soon enough. Soon she'd be ready to join that box of popsicles that Yang seemed to like so much. Faunus flavored popsicle. Ew. Nevermind.

Standing behind Yang, she hummed softly, the blond haired woman kneeling beside Ren, the two digging through the deep snow at the base of one of the trees, looking for the curious little flowers. The faunus tilted her head a bit in curiosity, before slowly kneeling beside them, peering over her shoulder. After a few moments, she grew bored, finding that they still hadn't managed to locate their goal, and she grunted, glancing over at Pyrrha and Jaune.

To her surprise, they were far more successful than the temporary pair of Yang and Ren. The basket they had chosen, snow clad and sinking haphazardly in a snow drift, was half full of the frozen crop. The little plants stuck out, a light blue lily, against the murky brown of the woven carrier. Its petals were a mixture of a deep blue, ending at the tips with a white that blended in with the environment perfectly. Stem curling around its companions, the thorns stabbed offensively at anything that threatened to damage it.

Yet, it seemed to glitter, sparkling within the falling precipitation. It shone, just like grounded up dust before it was injected into their weapons. Blake tilted her head at that, leaning a bit closer to look better at the strange, cerulean plant. Was this really a living form of dust? That was the rumor, according to some teachers. It truly looked as if the dust had been sprinkled on, like a cupcake at a bakery, prepared for consumption.

"Is that it?" Blake asked softly, easily grabbing her partner's attention, who paused holding the snow up for Ren's excavating hands. When it avalanched on him up to his arms, he grumbled softly and extricated himself from the heavy substance, brushing off the heavy clumps of snow from the fabric of his coat. Slowly, he stood up, stretching out his knees as he briefly decided to do a quick survey of the area to stretch his legs, leaving the two to speak.

"Yeah. Pyrrha seemed to recognize it right away." Yang shrugged. "Ren and I haven't seen it before. So she knew where to look." Stretching her arms over her head, she huffed, her breath forming a cloud by her red lips. "Eh. Whatever, I guess. A bag of nails is more useful then Ren is."

At that, Ren swirled around, giving a disgruntled huff, Yang teasingly waving at him and giggling. Ignoring the daggers sent her way, she tossed her hair over her shoulder. "We aren't doing so well right now. Care to help us out?"

"Why are you working with him anyways?" Blake asked, hesitantly sidling up over on the other side of her, tugging her sleeves down a bit more and adjusting her mittens. "Shouldn't he be working with Nora?"

"How many guesses do you want?" Yang snickered, jerking her head towards where the two other ladies were busy chucking snowballs at each other, ducking behind snow drifts or trees, trying their best to aim at once another. "They went crazy when they saw all this snow. It's like they've never seen all of this white stuff before. Personally, I want to get done and get into fresh clothes, ya know? So I grabbed my buddy over here and went to work. What took you and Weiss so long?"

"We particularly weren't all that interested in digging in the snow for some dirty plants." Weiss piped in, slowly walking towards them, stepping a bit awkwardly over the larger piles of snow, her luxury designer boots providing little help in keeping her feet warm and dry. With a small yelp, she yanked one of her legs out of the deep snow, waddling over to where the two girls were, Pyrrha and Jaune pausing to watch them from where they were a few trees down.

"I have a feeling you didn't want to get your new clothes filthy." Blake snickered softly from where she sat beside Yang, a disgruntled little squeal leaving Weiss' lips. She snorted softly and stood behind Yang, Ren slipping past her to rejoin his spot beside the tall blonde, having finished his rounds for the time being. He flopped back on the snow, preparing to start digging again.

"So what? I have you know this is real fur!" Weiss cried out, yet earned no sympathy from the three kneeling in front of her. Eventually she snorted, then nudged Ren a bit with her foot. "Hey. You. Druggie. Do you know what these flowers are for? What are they even called?"

Ren stiffened up at bit at that, gritting his teeth for a moment, Yang glancing towards him with a small frown. Slowly, he swallowed, glancing up at her. "…yeah, I think I do. Their name is straight and to the point. Dust Thorns, or something like that. I think they're also called Dust Flowers, nice and simple. I don't know for sure.

"Dust Flowers are basically when dust has been infused with the flowers. The flowers themselves are dust. A living form of dust. They only bloom once a year. I don't know too much about them, but they're basically like an edible form of dust. I know sometimes people will harvest them to smoke the dust—" at that, Ren paused, trailing off with a slight scowl. Of course. That was exactly what Weiss wanted to hear.

"I'm not surprised that you know about that." Weiss gave a cute little snicker, tugging at the collar of her coat at her neck, smirking darkly. Ren didn't look up, trying to busy himself with searching the snow for more of the plants, but found himself trembling a bit now. Great. He just dug himself a hole with that one, and not because of his hands buried in the snow.

Yang scowled at Weiss. "Oh cut the shit out already. He answered your question, isn't that enough?" she then elbowed the man gently, smiling feebly. "Hey, go take a break. I know Weiss will love to take your place. Go play in the snow with Nora and Ruby. Go on."

Weiss began to splutter at that, watching as Ren wasted no time in jumping to his feet quite easily. He smirked a bit at the young woman, giving a brief little wave, before trudging through the snow towards where Nora and Ruby were near the edge of the lake. Hearing Weiss' cries, he sped up a bit, out of the radius of the beast, approaching his saviors in a few large steps, standing before them.

When Nora saw him step forward, she grinned broadly at him. Her face was tinged red from the cold and the wind whipping up, the snow falling a bit more heavily than when they first arrived. From her wind tousled hair and her snow-clad winter gear, she looked absolutely adorable in her pink parka and thick denim dried jeans. Yet, from her slightly shaking legs, it was evident that even she was not completely defended from the cold around them.

"Ren!" she panted, her breath coming in quick bursts, exhausted from the ferocious fight with Ruby, the younger student flopping on the snow lazily, idly making a snow angel. "There you are! You've been working so hard, you should take a break with me!"

"Yeah, I gotta pick up your slack." He teased, snickering softly as he waded towards her, not seeming surprised when she encircled his not-so-slim waist and rested her chin on his breastbone, giving him her cheeky smile. Snorting softly, Ren brushed some of her hair out of her face tenderly—at least attempted to, finding his gloves providing little practical use with that activity—and then tugged her hood up, trying to make her at least a little warmer. "Where's that hat I bought you? That little cat one, with the flaps?"

"I forgot it at home." Nora pouted a bit at that. "I'm sorry. I feel bad…it was a nice present too." She sighed softly, reaching up and adjusting Ren's ear muffs, slightly askew as they wrapped around his head. "At least your ears are all nice and warm, right? Hehe! You look so cute with your pink earmuffs and your pretty scarf too! I'm glad you're wearing the things I got you."

"It's freezing outside. Of course I'm wearing this." Ren snorted softly, glancing down at her. "I'm not going to be running around like you, without a nice warm hat or a scarf. Look at you. You're going to catch a cold."

"I told you I forgot it." Nora repeated with a huff, rolling her eyes as she gave him a tight squeeze, giggling as she snuggled up to his chest contently. "At least you're all nice and warm from your blubber."

"Oh be quiet." Ren mumbled softly, his cheeks turning a bright red, and not from the bitter breeze biting at his skin. "It's only like fifteen pounds anyways. I don't know what the big deal is anyways."

"I think it's cute." The little redhead whispered softly, seeming content to just keep her arms around his waist. "You're always so serious and stern…it's nice that you're a little more laid back from the weight. It's also cute on you!"

Ren snorted, not saying anything about that. "I can't win against you, anyways. So what's the point?" He hummed, then rested his cheek on the top of her head absently, ignoring how she gave a small squeak of surprise. "You stubborn thing. You're more thick-headed than a bull."

Nora merely giggled softly, swaying slightly, still embracing him warmly with a small hum. She slowly turned his body so she could get a better view of the students working, seeing Ruby finally beginning to assist her team with fishing out the necessary quota of vegetation. After a few moments, Pyrrha and Jaune stood, walking towards them, having two baskets full to the brim of the volatile little flowers.

"Thanks for helping us with the flowers." Jaune sarcastically snorted, exhaling loudly from fatigue. As he approached them, he placed the baskets down on either side of him, the two standing next to their team. "Your help is really appreciated."

"Shut up." Ren scoffed a bit, Nora rocking him back and forth idly. "I did try to help. But you had Pyrrha, who's done this before in her home country." He said simply, watching as Pyrrha huffed and rolled her eyes. "While my partner was busy trying to win the snowball war. Thank god she made it home ok."

At that, Nora, leaned up and pinched Ren's nose, who gave a small squeal and batted her hand away, causing her to giggled happily.

"You've never picked these flowers in the other continents?" Pyrrha asked suddenly, looking towards Ren. Her two teammates stopped what they were doing, turning towards her curiously. "I mean, aren't you from Vacuo?"

At that, the male paused, blinking and tilting his head. "…Vacuo? What?" he sneered softly, Nora also seeming quite curious. "I'm not from Vacuo. You're talking about that continent with all of the Oriental customs, right? Yeah. I have no ties to there. I was born here."

"Yeah! Ren and I knew each other since we were little!" Nora giggled softly, snuggling up to him again, the snow beginning to fall a bit more heavily now. "He's never been to Vacuo!"

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Pyrrha seemed a tad hurt at her assumption, frowning as she wrung her hands against her jacket a bit nervously. Fearful of having offended her friend with what she assumed was a racial assumption, a stereotype. "I just thought—I mean, there aren't many people that dress and look like you, and I just assumed—I mean, myself, I am from Mistral I just—"

"It's fine." Ren waved a hand towards her, shrugging, placing his hands on both sides of Nora's slim form, the shorter girl seeming absolutely pleased with his attention. "Don't worry about it. You're technically right about the dressing thing, but as far as I know, I never lived in Vacuo. Maybe my parents did, but I have no way of knowing. I honestly just like Vacuo style of clothing and things like that. It's pretty cool."

When his partner heard that little reminder of Ren's past, she frowned a bit, squeezing him a bit tighter, her hood falling from her head to rest on her shoulder blades again. Automatically, the taller male adjusted her again, fearful of her catching a cold, especially in the thickening weather. He was not taking care of a sick Nora. Not again. Nope, not too much fun.

"But Pyrrha, how did you know what to look for?" Jaune voiced the question ringing dully in their minds, to which the young warrior merely chuckled softly, a gloved hand resting on her red tinted cheeks.

"These flowers grow in the arid desert of Mistral. Not exactly the same, but similar." Explained Pyrrha, looking down at the frozen little plants in the woven baskets as she spoke. "The ones in Mistral are orange and red instead of white and blue. Those ones are infused with red dust, so they're easily flammable. They're useful I know as another energy source, since they're a bit more controllable than the crystal forms of dust.

"Legend says that when large areas of dust deposits leak near plant life, it infuses with the nearby vegetation. That's more what scientists say than legends' ancient texts, excuse me. Wrong thing." She shrugged a bit, smiling at her team. "But in Mistral, at least where I lived, we lived near an area of the desert where there was an Oasis, right in the vicinity of the town. So there were a lot of those red little flowers. When we were children, we'd pluck them out of the burning sand, and run back to Daddy, who'd then sell them. We'd get the money, and that was our allowance. The flowers can be dangerous when used the wrong way, just like normal dust…but it's still fun to harvest for them and then make a few lien. They were always so pretty…"

"That's…kinda sweet." Jaune tugged his scarf tighter around his neck, looking at his partner fondly. To share a memory of her childhood made him feel closer to her just listening to her. It was…nice. "So I guess you're familiar with these plants, huh?"

"Depending on the environment, different ones grow. So I guess so." Pyrrha echoed softly, moving to look across the lake. "That's why I wanted to know if Ren had lived in Vacuo. I thought these flowers were…pretty." She repeated, speaking quietly, below the sound of the breeze rippling through the environment. "I wanted to know what type grew in Vacuo. It's a stupid question, but…" a shrug of the shoulders, and she stared back over the frozen water, trailing off of the subject.

Nora lifted her head, tearing away from Ren for a brief moment to follow her line of sight, turning until her back was pressed against his front, humming softly. "That's pretty cool Pyrrha! At least, I think so." She turned towards her friend with a small grin. "You know…that lake is where a lot of people like to ice skate! This is where I love to go. But Ren's a pussy, he's never ice skated before."

"Shut up." Ren grumbled, burying his nose in his scarf, curling up within himself as he tried to stay warm, Nora's heat gone from his form. "Ice skating is hard. I'm not falling all over the place and embarrassing myself. That's your department."

"Hey!" a pout appeared on her face, and she crossed her arms, looking back out at the lake. "I love coming here, don't be mean. Sometimes on the weekends I'll come here by myself and just ice skate for a bit…winter is great! I don't know why you don't come with me one time, mister!" poking his nose a bit harshly, she turned back to the other woman. "Pyrrha, have you ever ice skated before?"

"I don't have much experience with the cold." She answered, shaking her head with a soft giggle, the two then swiveling towards Jaune, the other male glancing over at him, all three curious of him. The scraggly blond blinked, raising his hands in defeat.

"I'm with Ren on this one." He laughed weakly, Ren giving a small whistle of victory. "Though, I'd be afraid of the ice breaking and me falling through! Gosh! I wouldn't want to freeze to death. That sounds painful. Nope. Not doing it."

"Aw, come on!" Ruby called, overhearing Jaune's response, jogging towards where they were standing by the shore of the water, her team wading behind her in the thickening snow, more of it falling a bit more vigorously, a blizzard brewing. "It won't break! This lake has been frozen for so long, I doubt that'd happen!"

"Yeah. Ruby and I used to always skate her as kids!" Yang's voice attempted to ring out over the howling wind, their hair whipping around at the increasing velocity. Whatever warmth that was left in the air evaporated and fell with the sun, darkness beginning to overtake the open area of the lake. The shattered moon hung above their heads, observing the students as a silent guardian. Distractions and conversations seemed to have brought night early.

Once the axiomatic fact of the sun's disappearance sank in, all eight of them exchanged looks at the sight of Team CRDL sprinting towards the cabin for the night. They wasted no time in scampering towards the source of a night's duration of warmth. It had been part of the package for the field trip—harvest the flowers the first day, and then the next, if a job had been well done, spend half of the next day hanging out on the frozen lake if so desired. Almost like a break, a congratulation on making it to Beacon and not flunking out within the first week. All paid for by the owners of the property as a thank you for their help.

A crackling fire place, a warm gust of air blowing away the chill in their bones, the students stepped inside and stood there for a few moments, letting it all sink in, the shock feeling wonderful. Slowly, each one of them peeled off their now dripping jackets and hang them up on the rows of coat hangers, joining the other abandoned garments.

It was homey, horns of fallen beasts and beautiful hand painted portraits hung above the fire place, made of stone and brick, sparkling away wonderfully. The entire atmosphere was warm and inviting, right out of a movie. Smells of pine and freshly baked deserts tugged them inside, temptations of hot cocoa and treats reminding them of a hunger that was previously nonexistent –well mostly.

Glynda had seemed to relax and unwind for the night, curled up comfortably on the couch in the den across from the fire place, idly watching the flames dance and flicker in their cage, sipping quietly on her hot chocolate. When the students entered the serene area, she glanced towards them, adjusting her glasses with a small hum.

"Place what you got over there, with the others. Then you're free to go to bed for the night, or relax in the main room. Whatever you wish." The teacher instructed, melting back into her quiet and comfortable zone, tucking herself into the cocoon of quilts and fleece throws.

Pyrrha placed her basket in the corner beside the others, Yang and Blake following behind her with their own load. Once that was finished, the rest of Team RWBY lumbered to their rooms to change into their pajamas and getting ready for the night. Counting up the baskets real quick, a frown appeared on the red head's face, and she turned to look towards her partner in concern.

"Hey…where's the last basket?"

At that, Jaune startled, blinking over at her curiously. Automatically he glanced towards Nora and Ren, whining loudly when he found them already walking away towards their room, staying fairly close to one another. Whirring around, he turned back to Pyrrha, pouting slightly.

"I forgot it outside…"

"Well go get it! I'm not putting on all of those layers again." She huffed, already unlacing her boots and tossing them in the corner, shivering when her socks stepped onto the melting snow on the wooden floor. "At least you still have your shoes on. Go do it real quick."

"But you just took your shoes off…! Pyrrha! It's too cold!" Jaune whined loudly, then slowly scowled when he saw Pyrrha's disgruntled expression, then dragged his feet back to the door, taking much more time than necessary. "…fine. I better have a nice mug of hot cocoa when I get back."

At that, Pyrrha giggled softly, tugging out the ribbon in her ponytail, her long hair cascading her back, her bangs framing her face perfectly, cheeks still flushed a light pink. Her appearance could resemble a small child, Jaune thought briefly, smiling as he waved a bit stupidly at her, before scrambling back outside into the blistering cold. The cold burst of snow lingered in the room for a moment, causing her to tremble for a few moments, before shaking away the cold and slowly walking towards where their team would be staying for the night. Oh, how she desired to wear her nice and cozy clothes to bed...curl up…and sleep away the cold.

Pyrrha made it towards the bedroom, humming softly as she peeled off the damp clothes, tossing them in the plastic bag she had brought for her dirty clothes. Ren and Nora were somewhere else getting dressed, and she felt pleased for the small moment of solitude to herself to change in peace. She buttoned up the warm top that she had bought specifically for this trip, smoothening down the fabric with both hands, the reindeer bouncing around the red background clutching onto her toned body. Kicking off her pants, she unfolded the new matching pair of pants, slipping them on over her legs and tying the drawstring, then glancing down at her form, deciding that she was perfect to go to bed.

Lowering herself into bed, Pyrrha tugged the heavy comforter over her shoulder and tucking it under her chin, humming quietly as she got herself comfortable. It weighed her down, squishing her between the firm mattress and the heavy fabric, and she rested her head on the pillow, breathing out through her nose as she shut her eyes.

Yet, before sleep could envelope her and take her away, she was rudely awaken by a pair of hands shaking her awake. With a loud grumble, she opened her eyes, staring up at Nora, who looked back down at her in curiosity, Ren standing behind the shorter girl with his arms crossed. Before Pyrrha could even open her mouth to voice her questions of why the hell was she woken up, Nora cut her off and went into a ramble.

"Hey! Has Jaune come back yet? Oh, you probably don't know. I mean, you went to sleep…haha that was a silly question…But he's getting the flowers right? I wonder what's taking him so long! Do you think he got lost in the blizzard! Oh, maybe he went in the wrong direction and he's going deeper in the blizzard! Maybe he tripped and fell and is trapped in the snow! Or maybe he's inside and—"

"Nora." Ren's voice cut her off before she could delve deeper into her floods of words and sentences, and at his stern gaze of disapproval, she went silence, both of them turning back towards Pyrrha. It was as if without their leader, they went to their second in command, wondering what should be done about Jaune's absence. The howling wind ripped against the cabin, whispering and crying to them of the torment of the storm blowing outside, giving a word of warning to the inhabitants.

Pyrrha sighed quietly, slowly rolling out of bed, rubbing the little droplets of sleep from her eyes with a small grunt, looking up at them. Tossing a glance over her shoulder, she confirmed their words. Jaune's bed was still untouched, and she sighed, slowly standing up. As his partner, she was yet again, the automatically elected person to go out and look for him.

"I'll go." She voiced the obvious, waving away the two. "Go on, go to bed. He's probably fine, I'll go pick him up." stretching and giving a brief yawn, she gave a halfhearted wave and slowly shuffled out of the room, the two watching her leave before departing to their own beds for the night.

When Pyrrha got to the den, she found the room dark, the embers of the fire still giving off a mild heat for the night. Her teacher had left for her own room, the main room not as open and cheery as it first had been. This made her speed up in throwing on her still damp winter clothes, slipping on her boots and trudging out the door.

Gusts of frigid air and bundles of snow nearly threw back where she came from, and she gave a loud huff, throwing her hood on and grasping at the doorframe, nearly thrusting herself forward into the heart of the raging storm.

It didn't take long for Pyrrha to slide down the steps, the snow almost up to her knees at this point. She scowled, her strides basically long jumps as she tried to make it back to the lake, her chest tightening as the frigid wind ripping at her and chilling her with a terrible cold. Visibility was close to zero, yet she continued to trudge forward, feebly trying to call for Jaune's name.

The words that Nora had spoken still rang in her ears, and she swallowed heavily. No, he was fine. Probably just…lost. Yeah, that's all. No big deal…he was and is fine.

The snow seeped into her pajamas pants, making her legs grow numb, her arms feebly wrapped around herself to keep herself warm, to fend off the heavy outrage of nature. Her sight was faltering, snow caking in at the corners, and she moved forward weakly, still crying out loudly for him. Fear gripped at her heart like a predator munching on their prey, and she gasped, terrified that something terrible had happened to him.

For a split second, she believed that dream to be merely a false reality when she stepped at the base of the frozen lake, staring out at the ice, and hearing Jaune's cries of reply back to her.

Yet, her entire existence came crashing down sharply when she saw the source of his cries. The broken ice, the bobbing figure of her partner in the water, and the figure towering over him, trying to knock him deep into the unforgiving abyss. Her voice became hoarse as she screamed, rocketing herself forward onto the ice to save him, the blizzard howling around them.


End file.
